Courtesy of:- Ray Lo, and the Spurs List

    FA Premier Academy League South
    Spurs Lodge, Chigwell, Essex.
    Saturday 2nd April 2005, ko 11am

       SPURS    v   CRYSTAL PALACE
   (White/Blue)    (Red/Blue/Red)
       4-4-2        4-4-2

        3(2)         0(0)

  David Button  1  Ricky Banks
  Chris Riley   2  Phil Starkey
  Mark Wright   3  Rhys Wiggins
  Stuart Lewis  4  Tom Welch
Troy Archibald  5  ?
Charlie Lee(C)  6  Matt Fish
   Jamie Davis  7  Tyrone Berry
 Simon Dawkins  8  Vic Moses
 Claude Seanla  9  Lewis Grabban
Jacques Maghoma 10 James Dayton
Charlie Daniels	11 Ryan Spence

Matthew Wells	12 Hines.
(9) 76 Mins.       (7) 65 Mins
Tommy Forecast	13	
Radwan Hamed	14 Jeryl Hughes
(8) 70 Mins.        (11) 65 Mins.
Andy Barcham	15
Leigh Mills	16
(6) 46 Mins.

It was a lovely fresh sunny morning for this game. Pat Holland took the opportunity to leave some first choice players on the bench. With the first team playing away at Birmingham the crowd was a little on the small side.

Spurs lined up with Captain Lee playing alongside new boy Archibald in the centre of the defence with Riley at right back and Wright at left. Lewis and Maghoma took up the centre midfield berths with Davis and Daniels playing wide. Dawkins and Seanla were together up front for I think the first time this season.

Spurs were quickly out of the blocks in the first half attacking the South goal, with Seanla going close and Daniels having two efforts blocked before Grabban hit the outside of the near post in a rare counter in the 13th minute. The home side were having the better of the play with only the final ball missing. While the Palace players battled well they looked to be in a different league with only a free kick by Moses causing concern to Button. Spurs continued to threaten every time they went forward and it wasn't until the 33rd minute that they got their reward. Following a corner the ball came back into the middle for Claude Seanla to hit a shot from the penalty spot. Despite a defender getting in the way the ball crossed the line before Banks pushed it out. The ref confirmed that it was Seanla's goal at half-time. This was the break that Spurs needed as Palace had been getting forward more without giving Button much work. The home side kept up the pressure and got a second when Jacques Maghoma hit a low drive from about 25yds past the diving Banks into the left hand corner. The Eagles had one more chance from a free kick just outside the box which was blasted over by Moses. Charlie Lee went down clutching his right thigh near the end of the half but seemed to have recovered.

Leigh Mills replaced Lee at the start of the second half taking the Captain's armband. The home side started at the gallop with Simon Dawkins having three efforts in the first minute. Seanla was running rings around the defenders as he out-paced them getting ahead of them too often and it was from his ball in from the left that was turned back by Dawkins for Daniels to fire low into the bottom right hand corner. That made the game safe as the Palace heads dropped and despite making a double substitution followed by a third and going with three at the back they could not breakdown the home sides defence. Spurs sat back and put an extra body in midfield after taking off the two strikers and leaving Hamed as the lone man up front.

Unusually at this level it was a one-sided contest and once they got in front it was clear that there was only going to be one winner. The Spurs players were sharper and quicker to the ball as well as being more physical, forcing errors out of the visitors. It was the best result for a long time and good news for the up coming semi-final against Ipswich. The only problem seems to be the injury to Charlie Lee. It was the first time that I have seen Archibald who after a nervy start settled down well. To be honest he did not have much of a test and gave away a free kick in a dangerous position in the first half.

There is a busy week ahead with the reserves playing on Wednesday at Stevenage and the U-18's playing at Ipswich on the Friday with an away game against Chelsea on Saturday (Ed:- It appears that the Chelsea game has been postponed) and the Newcastle game (Premiership) on sunday.

Ray

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