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Courtesy of:- Ray Lo, and the Spurs List
F.A.Premier Reserve League - South
at White Hart Lane, Tottenham, N17.
Tuesday 17th October 2000, k.o.7pm.
SPURS v SOUTHAMPTON
(White/Blue) (Black)
4-4-2 4-4-2
2(1) 0(0)
Gavin Kelly 1 Neil Moss
Alton Thelwell 2 Paul Hughes
Anthony Gardner 3 Ryan Ashford
Simon Davies 4 Matthew Davies
Gary Doherty 5 Garry Monk
Luke Young 6 Francis Benali(C)
Ciaran Toner 7 Matthew Le Tissier
Stephen Clemence(C) 8 Kevin Gibbens
Yannick Kamanan 9 James Beattie
Willem Korsten 10 Adrian Caceres
Matthew Etherington 11 Mark Draper
Jose Dominguez 12 Alan Blaney
(7) 62Mins (2) 60Mins
Martin Brennan 13 Chris Baird
Mark Gower 14 Stephen Gray
Ian Hillier 15 Matthew Huxley
(6) 84Mins (10) 77Mins
John Piercy 16 Ben Madgwick
Referee:- M.Ives
Booked - Gibbens (48) Tackle from behind.
It was a cool clear evening with the pitch looking in good condition. In
the crowd of around 200 were Bruce Lewis, Paul and Greg Smith as well as
Andy Porter.
The team lined up with Thelwell at right back and Gardner at left with
Doherty and Young in the middle. This was a strange line-up as I would have expected
Young to play on the left. Davies partnered Clemence in the centre of
midfield with Toner on the right and Etherington on the left.
Spurs kicked off the first half attacking the Park Lane End with Clemence and
Davies matching up with LeTiss and Draper leaving Ciaran with space to
attack down the right which is an unusual situation for him as he has
tended to be the defensive player in midfield. Both full backs had licence
to raid down the flanks with plenty of oppotunities to overlap.
Spurs took the lead in the 5th minute when Etherington picked up the ball in the
centre circle and ran to the edge of the "Saints"' area before playing the
ball left to Kamanan who had moved to the side of the 18 yard box. Kamanan's centre
was missed by a defender and fell nicely for Toner to volley it into the
far corner off the post. The same player almost got a second from the same
place two minutes later when from a square ball from Korsten, Ciaran's shot
was tipped around the post by Moss.
Draper was completely dominated by Davies and Le Tissier was having a hard time against Clemence, working hard
to make any telling passes. He did have one free kick from 20 yards which was
deflected for a corner, but he was generally held by Stephen.
The back line was in dominant form thanks to the grip that the midfield had, leaving
Kelly with little to do. Up front Kamanan was having to cover a lot of
ground as Korsten was not in the mood to do much running and his shooting
was wayward as well.
With the full backs making so many runs down the wings, Etherington and Toner came inside more looking for the ball and supporting the backs. Matty was also starting to make runs in the channel that Korsten
usually takes, prompted by Davies. Gibbens received his yellow card for a tackle from behind on Toner as another Southampton attack was broken up. The closest they came to a goal was in the 44th minute when a ball from
Le Tissier found Caceres wide on the left, he cut inside Thelwell and hit his shot as Kelly came out. Kelly failed to hold it and Beattie put the loose ball over the bar from 7 yards.
Spurs were even more dominant in the second half as Korsten got moving and began to get involved. The ref was reaching for his yellow card following a crunching tackle on LeTiss by Clemence, but almost certainly
thanks to the Town star the ref let him off. With prompting from Korsten Etherington started to make more runs down the wing taking on the full back, getting in crosses. Korsten finally got on the end of one in the 60th
minute. Having arrived in the six yard box he controlled the low centre, turned and moved to the right before hitting the ball into the left corner.
Southampton immediately changed to three at the back by taking off Hughes which prompted Hughton to bring on Jose for Kamanan. Korsten dropped deep and played balls behind the defence for Dominguez on the right and Etherington
on the left to latch onto using their pace. Twice Matty was played through with only the keeper to beat, each time firing wide of the far post. Jose also had a good chance to increase the lead but Moss saved well. The two
wide men also set up chances for Korsten, Davies and Clemence.
Hughton took off Young near the end for Hillier who slotted into his usual position at right back allowing Thelwell to move inside. Bruce led the applause as the team came off at the end of a very good performance. Last season a Le Tissier-inspired Southampton had beaten us at St.Albans, but this time they were nowhere the same side as our midfield controlled the game and the 2-0 scoreline flattered the visitors. If only Korsten had applied
himself for the whole game, but this seems to be the norm for him. Bruce expressed the hope that Young would be in the side on Saturday for the Derby game.
The next home game for the reserves will be at WHL on the 24th October when the visitors will be Leicester City.
Ray
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