Courtesy of:- Ray Lo, and the Spurs List.

	   FA Youth Cup 4th Round
       White Hart Lane, Tottenham, N17
      Wednesday 15th January 2003, 7pm 

          SPURS     v   SWINDON TOWN
       (White/Blue)     (Red/White)
         3-4-1-2           4-4-2

           1(0)            0(0)

    Paul Rutherford 1 Steve Smith
        Philip Ifil 2 Danny Taylor
   Nicholas Wettner 3 Ian Oliver
        David Tyrie 4 Dave Brampton
    Danny Foster(C) 5 Luke Garrard
       Ricky Dobson 6 Chris Taylor
        Lee Barnett 7 James Hambridge
        Mark Yeates 8 Michael Pook
      Jamie Slabber 9 Mark Draycott
   Michael Malcolm 10 Jamie Cheeseman
    Jonathan Black 11 David Stroud

        Mario Noto 12 Matty Bullman 
                      (8) 90Mins.
     Nicholas Eyre 13 Kyle Lapham
      Daniel Perry 14 Aaron Salter
      Liam Francis 15 Mark Jones
        Owen Price 16 Justyn McKay
        (11)79Mins    (7) 59Mins

Scorer - Slabber 85 Mins.

Referee - N. Appleby

It was a mild evening with a good sized crowd for this 4th round tie. Pat Holland chose an attacking line-up for this game with captain Foster at the heart of a back line flanked by Tyrie on his right and Dobson on his left. Barnett and Black played in the centre of midfield as Ifil took the right wing-back postion with wideman Wettner on the left. Man of the match Mark Yeates played behind the front two of Slabber and Malcolm as the fulcrum of the attack.

Spurs kicked off attacking the Paxton Road End and immediately put the visitors on the defensive. Good approach play led to a few chances without many strikes at goal. Swindon came to frustrate the home side with a very well organised performance closing down quickly from the front, right to the back as they looked to stop us playing with with a mainly negative display. A lot of the Spurs play went through Yeates playing in the hole behind the strikers and despite some close marking, he was able to send both Slabber and Malcolm through balls as well as to the wings.

The referee was more lenient than in league games with the Robins' challenges, as the ball tended to escape unharmed in many tackles, but they did their job and kept the home side out. Most of the play was in the Swindon half with Slabber, followed by Malcolm, having efforts blocked as early as the seventh minute with Yeates, Wettner, Black and Barnett also having a go before the interval. However, most attacks were halted by a solid backline. The visitors had very few forays into our box with Draycott putting one centre just wide of the post being the best.

The second half started much the same way as the first had finished, until just after the hour mark when Swindon won a corner on the right. This prompted a spell of pressure when Draycott and Cheeseman both went close and Rutherford made his first real save. The frustrated home side started to push forward more as they looked for a way through the Robins' defence. Yeates waqs prompting and Tyrie was appearing in the last third as more balls were pumped into the area, but with poor final balls the defence held firm. Tyrie had a shout for a penalty and Malcolm had an effort cleared off the line.

With gaps appearing at the back, Draycott lost out to Foster in a two on one situation. With time running out Foster ran with the ball from deep in his own half firing just over. Holland then brought Price on to provide a better service from the right side, with Yeates moving to a more central position. It was as a result of the substitute that the deadlock was broken. With five minutes to go Price took a corner from the right, curling it to the near post for Jamie Slabber to nod in. The visitors pushed everybody forward in an attempt to save the game which produced a couple of close shaves before the final whistle.

The under 18's played well against a resolute defence that was not prepared to concede ground and were unlucky not to score more. I think that Spurs could have done with the invention of Price earlier although with his temperament, it may have been a risk against the visitors' defenders. We are through to the next round with another home tie against either Crystal Palace or Notts County who play next month. One other result tonight that may interest readers was Millwall 2 Arsenal 1.

Ray

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