· Portsmouth 2 Spurs 0 - 26.12.03
· This week - last year
· What happened in the Premiership in Match 24 2002-3

Full Record of Spurs -v- Portsmouth

Prem          Pl   W   D   L   For-Ag  Pts
Home           0   0   0   0    0 - 0   0
Away           1   0   0   1    0 - 2   0
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Total (Prem)   1   0   0   1    0 - 2   0
=========================================
Football Lge
Home (Div 1)  13   4   6   3   27 -22  14
Away (Div 1)  13   3   5   5   14 -22  11
=========================================
Total(Div 1)  26   7  11   8   41 -44  25
=========================================
Total (Prem)   1   0   0   1    0 - 2   0
Total(Div 1)  26   7  11   8   41 -44  25
=========================================
Grand Total   27   7  11   9   41 -46  25
=========================================

Last Six Premiership results:-
Spurs
P'tsmouth  2  0   Spurs
Spurs      0  1   Charlton
Spurs      4  1   B'mingham
Leeds      0  1   Spurs
Spurs      2  1   Liverpool
Fulham     2  1   Spurs

Portsmouth
P'tsmouth  2  0   Spurs
Chelsea    3  0   P'tsmouth
A. Villa   2  1   P'tsmouth
P'tsmouth  4  2   Man City
Bolton     1  0   P'tsmouth
P'tsmouth  0  0   Wolves

Pos           P  W  D  L  F-A   GD  Pts
13  Spurs     23  8  3 12  27  33   -6  27
17  P'tsmouth 23  6  5 12  25  33   -8  23

This match sold out before the FA Cup disaster of Wednesday night. No doubt the arrival of Jermain Defoe has caused all the excitement that got rid of the last few thousand seats. Despite the disbelief and gloom that has pervaded since Macken scored that injury-time goal, we'll be there on Saturday and we'll be rooting for the boys, won't we?

The big question is - will the team be able to bounce back from yet another morale sapping defeat, not to mention the performance, or should I say lack of performance? David Pleat said after the game that he has a number of options, and I sincerely hope that one of these could be the return of Gary Doherty for Dean Richards, who seems to attract disastrous turn-rounds in the score-line.

Rohan Ricketts has been playing well for the reserves, and despite apparently having fallen out with the management, surely deserves a start this week, doesn't he? I'd put him on the left, drop Dalmat, and play Davies on his natural right-hand side. I would also leave Gus Poyet as far away from the pitch as possible, but that probably won't happen. Mauricio Taricco may be fit enough to return, and the situation with Anderton is not clear. He's due a one match suspension, but this may come after Saturday when he just may be in the frame.

Portsmouth, have beaten both us and our Wednesday night victors in their last 6 games, but their form generally has plummeted since the start of the season, and they do have a relegation battle to address. Newcastle loanee, LuaLua will play, and Yakubu may play before possibly returning to Tunisia, where he has been recalled by Nigeria, despite earlier discipline problems.

Harry Redknapp has a new Croatian - Iveca Morna - on the books, which reminds me of a Jimmy Greaves gag about scores on the scrabble board, and the one about the Croatian going up for a corner, shouting "Mine!", and everybody else ducking!

It is going to be a stop-start season from now on for Spurs, with days off in the next two rounds of the FA Cup. (I think it is possible that the February 28th fixture at Middlesbrough will be played on FA Cup quarter-final week-end, as "Boro" have a trip to Cardiff on February 29th). Firstly though, we do have two games to play over the next week. In the circumstances this game against Pompey will be just as tough as the trip to The Valley next Wednesday, but I fancy the boys to do the necessary, beating Portsmouth 3-1, with Defoe to score on his debut.

Here's a note of caution though......having scored for Spurs in a losing game for the first time on Saturday, Robbie did it again on Wednesday. It couldn't happen again, could it?

Yours, ever the optimist...............

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