FA Premier League, south
          Spurs Lodge, Chigwell, Essex
      Saturday 22nd October 2005, k.o.11am

         SPURS        V      READING
      (White/Blue)         (Blue/White)
         4-5-1                4-5-1

          3(2)                  2(0)

        David Button  1   Ben Haymer
         Chris Riley  2   Steve Bygrave
          Joe Martin  3   Spence
        Stuart Lewis  4   Karacan
  Archibald-Henville  5   Curtis Ujah(C)
     Leigh Mills (C)  6   Pearce
        Andy Barcham  7   Scott Davies
      Jaques Maghoma  8   Ryan Crockford
        Radwan Hamed  9   Liam Marum
       Simon Dawkins  10  Church
       Claude Seanla  11  Robson-Kanu

       John Kyriacou  12  Bayley
        (7)67Mins.        (2)46Mins.
      Tommy Forecast  13  Forue Small
           Greg Lake  14  Bignal
                          (8)46Mins.
        Cian Hughton  15  Gylifi
                          (?)69Mins.
          Alex Smith  16

Booked - Davies 90(late)

It was a rather chilly overcast morning with a small crowd of watchers present who saw an entertaining game of football.

Spurs lined up with Archibald-Henville again partnering Mills in defence with Riley at right back and Martin on the left. Lewis and Maghoma had Dawkins along side of them in midfield with Barcham wide right and Seanla wide left in support of Hamed up front.

Spurs kicked off attacking the South end and took an early lead when they attacked down the right leaving Seanla unmarked at the far post to head home the cross as he has done on more than one occasion before. The home side had by far the better of the first half with efforts from Dawkins, Lewis and Seanla as well as Hamed with Maghoma making a fine weaving run from just inside the half ending with a rising drive which Haymer tipped over.

It was not all one-way traffic with the Royals lone striker Marum getting past Mills to force a save from Button. The home side increased their lead after 40 minutes when Haymer failed to hold Lewis's long range effort and Seanla tapped in the loose ball.

Reading came out for the second half in a more determined mood having made two changes and soon put pressure on the spurs goal with Marum and Church going close. It was following a goalmouth melee that Martin turned the ball into his own net. This lead to a period of back-pedalling by the home side forcing Pat Holland to bring on Kyriacou to strengthen the midfield. It seemed to work as Spurs won a free kick just outside the box which was blocked, but Hamed reacted quickest to curl the ball into the far corner of the net.

Reading did not give up and kept going forward and were rewarded with another goal when the ball was hit low across the goalmouth it looked like Martin again got the last touch although Marum was claiming the credit. Spurs were hanging on at this point, but kept battling away and held out as the visitors finished the strongest.

I don't know what to make of this year's team as they have played some lovely football with good passing moves with what seems to be a strong back line. The only missing ingredient is a creative midfield player like O'Hara or Price. Yet they have not won a game away and have by all accounts performed badly on their travels. There is plenty of fight and they don't seem to make anymore mistakes than other years. They have a break next week before playing Watford away at Colney on the 5th November which I hope to attend.

Addendum

Having seen the Pires penalty foul-up last night it reminded me of an incident in the U-18 game that I forgot to put into my original write-up. Mid-way through the first half Andy Barcham was fouled as he advanced on the Reading goal and Stuart Lewis prepared to take the free kick. Pat Holland gave instructions for Joe Martin to take it so Jaques Maghoma stood over the ball with Lewis a yard to his left.

Martin was a few yards back ready to attack the ball as it was played past Lewis, but Maghoma like Pires hardly touched the ball. Marum rushed the kicker but stopped like everybody else expecting the ref to blow for it to be retaken. When it didn't Marum took the ball and raced upfield before being tackled by the covering defender. Did Pires copy Maghoma or is it just a French thing?

Ray

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