Jim Duggan posted this report after attending Pride Park (Jim's web site can be found at http://www.topspurs.com/):-

SATURDAY 3RD MARCH, 2001
FA CARLING PREMIERSHIP
DERBY COUNTY 2 (2) TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1 (0)

Derby scorer:-
Strupar (12), (33 pen)

Spurs scorer:-
West og (70)

Ref: R. Harris

Attendance 29,410

Teams:-
Derby County (3-5-2):-Oakes; Riggott, Carbonari, West; Delap, Burley, Powell, Johnson, Higginbotham; Christie (Gudjonsson 77), Strupar (Burton 57)

Subs not used:-Morris, Grant, Murray
Bookings:- Riggott 85, Burton 90

Spurs (3-5-2):-Sullivan; Doherty, Campbell, Thelwell (Gardner 46); Young, Freund, Sherwood, King, Clemence(Iversen 75); Ferdinand, Booth

Subs not used:- Walker, Korsten, Etherington
Bookings: Clemence 32, Freund 37, Ferdinand 89

There was more away-day misery as Tottenham registered their 10th away defeat at a freezing cold Pride Park. Again the players gave everything, but lacked sufficient guile to breakdown a team that has been in the bottom three for most of the season. The team was announced to universal groans. No Rebrov or Davies, Booth was starting with Iversen and Etherington only on the bench, alongside Korsten. Derby fielded their usual team of decent but not special players who are better than the sum of their individual parts. The 100th match at Pride Park kicked off with Spurs attacking the Spurs end, full as ever with the great Spurs travelling support.

As with many Spurs away matches, the opening exchanges were very scrappy, with both sides conceding possession without getting near the opposition goal. Derby’s first effort was a shot, which was deflected for a corner. Burley took the corner, which was flicked on by Delap for Strupar who emerged unmarked at the back post to expertly side-foot home a volley from six yards.

Derby looked the better side after their goal and had a good period in the match. Spurs, despite Young’s best efforts, missed Carr to add some impetus to our lethargic build-up. Sherwood did not pass the ball forward once until well into the second half, while Freund and King did their best, there was no creativity coming from the midfield. Having two target men up front, only served to make the other players lump it up to them , but they got little out of the excellent combo of West, Riggott and Carbonari. The latter I think is one of the most under-rated players in the Premiership.

Spurs' first effort on target came from Clemence, but this lacked power and was easily dealt with by stand-in goalkeeper Oakes. With Derby having the better of the play, it came as little surprise when they doubled their lead just after the half-hour. Thelwell was looking very jittery at as the left of our three centre backs, and bundled Christie over as they challenged just inside the right-hand side of the area. From where we were at the other end of the pitch, it looked a penalty, but a few people afterwards were saying that it wasn’t. Strupar sent Sully the wrong way from the spot, and the only hope we had left was that there was still an hour to go, although at that stage an hour meant more time to concede than any thoughts of getting a goal back.

Spurs nearly fell further behind when Sully mis-judged a bouncing ball near the dead ball line, with Christie on hand to slot the ball home, but the ref had blown for a push on Sully by the Derby player. It was a lucky escape as there didn’t seem to be too much wrong. Spurs' attacks were pretty limited in the first period dominated by Derby, but Luke Young did manage an effort to break his duck from twenty yards out, but this went over the bar.

The penalty capped a poor performance from Thelwell who has looked very nervous in his last couple of matches and has been a shadow of the player who did well against the likes of Liverpool, Man Utd and Arsenal earlier in the season. I’d hoped signing a new contract and getting in the England U-21 would give him confidence, but it seems to have had the opposite effect.

The effect of the introduction of Gardner for his Spurs debut at the start of the second half was to immediately make the defence look a lot tighter. Derby had a couple of chances at the start of the half, notably with Powell firing over when he should have done better, but as the half wore on, Derby retreated into their shell, allowing Tottenham a lot of the ball.

Spurs' first effort of the half was a curling shot from Sherwood, who’d probably forgotten the sides had switched ends as the ball went forward, but the attempt was comfortably saved. King was next to threaten the Derby goal, but again his shot was well saved. Jim Smith introduced Burton up front to add a bit of pace to their attack, as the play became one-way traffic toward the Derby goal. Christie wasted an excellent opportunity as he blasted over after working himself into a good position, while Booth failed to register with a couple of headers (one saved, the other wide) and volleyed another effort wide at the other end in his last match in our colours.

Having the ball, with Derby content to defend their penalty area really highlighted the lack of creativity in the side and to some extent showed the lack of leadership, as no-one seemed to take responsibility for leading our fightback. Sherwood tried I suppose, but it takes a bit more than some pointing and bad passes to bring back memories of someone like Graham Roberts rallying all around him.

With 20 minutes to go, and out of the blue, Spurs were given a lifeline when Taribo West headed a long ball into the box past his own keeper without being pressured by a Spurs player. Spurs continued to press, and were better served after the substitution on Clemence for Iversen, with Young switching to left wing-back. There were a couple of scrambles in the Derby box in the last period of the match, and Doherty headed on to the roof of the net as Spurs tried in vain for an equaliser.

I cannot fault the effort , but this is Tottenham. We need some skilful players and imaginative tactics. Graham has to be sacked and soon before he mutates into Francis, the sequel, and we are back to square one again

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