Courtesy of:- Ray Lo, and the Spurs List.
FA Premier Academy League
Spurs Lodge, Chigwell, Esssex
Saturday 3rd September 2005, ko 11am
Spurs 1(0) v Millwall 1(0)
4-5-1 4-4-2
White/Blue Blue/Blue
SPURS - Forecast; Smith, Martin, Wells, Riley, Lake(Mills 74), Davis, Lewis(C), Seanla(Hamed 64), Maghoma, Heller(Dawkins 64)
Unused subs:- Hughton, Kyriacou
MILLWALL - Sorry no team sheet. the 5 was replaced by the 12 during added time at the end of the first half.
Scorers - Millwall 10 (72), Dawkins 84
It was a bright warm morning with Paul Smith joining me in a small crowd on a day when there was no Premier league action for the visit of our south London opponents - not Woolwich Arsenal. Again it was spot the players as the club was too lazy to print a team sheet.
Spurs lined up with new boy Greg Lake partnering Chris Riley at the heart of the defence with Alex Smith at right back and Joe Martin at left. Stuart Lewis had Matthew Wells and Jacques Maghoma in the middle of the park flanked by Jamie Davis on the right and Richard Heller on the left supporting Claude Seanla up front.
Spurs kicked off attacking the South goal and soon created chances thanks to the running of Maghoma and Davis. The five-man midfield pegged the Lions back restricting their front two to few chances, which was just as well as they were powerfully build and played intelligently pulling the back line about like professionals winning freekicks in good positions. Millwall also had some big players at the back who were not afraid to put their weight into the tackle which against our smaller, less well built players must have left their mark. Their 5 came off worst when diving into a challenge at the end of the half.
Thw second half followed the first before the home side got on top and were camped in the visitors half for a long spell. Chances fell to Seanla, Dawkins, twice and Hamed where we should have scored.
Dawkins and Hamed had come on as straight swaps for Seanla and Heller. It looked like we had blown it by failing to score as against the run of play the Lions did just that. Spurs failed to clear a corner and the 2 crossed low for a simple tap-in at the far post by the 10.
Dawkins was pushed into a more advanced position as Spurs went looking for a goal which suddenly did not look like coming as Millwall looked more dangerous. Pat Holland brought on the more experienced Mills for Lake to strengthen the defence. The tackling got more fierce with some crunching two footed ones going in. The ref while being finicky over the position of free kicks let them go with hardly a word. Paul suggested that he must have left his card at home which I have to agree with as there were a few tackles out there that would have got a yellow or even a red if it had been in the Premiership. Rob Styles would have had a field day.
The pressure finally paid off when Simon Dawkins grabbed the equaliser following good work by Maghoma. The game swung back towards the home side with the visitors holding out for a point. We did see another two footed tackle that left Lewis on the ground in the box before the ref awarded Millwall a free kick!
This was a hard fought point which because of some poor finishing could have been none. Seanla did well as the lone striker in what is becoming the fashion these days - even Sven is doing it. The players stood up to the very physical nature of the visitors tactics without buckling and kept going forward which was good to see, but finishing could be better.
Next week the youth team will play at Ipswich with the next match at the Lodge being on the 17th Sept. when the visitors will be Fulham.
Ray Lo
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