Apparently the "Footballing World" site is down at present. One of its writers ("Danny Mackay") has kindly offered this article to Spurs Odyssey:-
Over 100,000 cheers for Spurs!
In the last week, Spurs have played, gone behind and won in front of 100,000 fans at White Hart Lane.
Starting with an impressive win against Club Brugge on Thursday 2nd November, and following up with a glorious win against Chelsea on Fireworks Day (How appropriate!), Spurs played in front a near packed house on Wednesday night against lowly Port Vale.
Vale fans turned out in their thousands, as did Spurs fans. And being the first game of the season not covered by their season tickets, many regulars stayed away and had their seats snapped up by unfamiliar and seemingly very young faces.
There were more kids at White Hart Lane than at any game I can remember for a long time. And they saw Spurs triumphantly turn over Port Vale with style and class.
Or, more accurately, they were given the footballing frights of their young lives by a Vale side that caused the home side a lot of trouble and went within 12 minutes of victory.
Individually the Tottenham lads, including debutants Barcham, Malbranque and Dervite, played well. But as a team they were disjointed and lacked urgency. Even once 1-0 down they hardly flung themselves after every ball as a desperate side should.
Port Vale were very well organised, very committed in defence, and with an eye for an opportunity capitalised through Constantine. They smartly took a throw in, while Spurs adjusted positions following a substitution, played the ball forward, and found the net through the keeper’s legs.
Davids deserves particular mention for his efforts, being the only Spurs player who took well to the lower-league heel-snapping style competitiveness that Port Vale dictated. He snapped back and tore around the pitch creating a vital pressure on players who otherwise had too much time to dwell.
Eventually, Huddlestone pulled Spurs level, through a long and floated free kick that may or may not have touched Constantine or Dervite on the way through.
That secured extra time, during which Spurs were largely untouchable and came close to scoring more than the two goals, one a Huddlestone drive, the other a Defoe flick, that won the game.
But with only one player remaining from the previous two games, Spurs had every reason to feel lucky to have survived while Port Vale could feel they more than matched what was, on paper, still a Premiership quality side.
· Read the Spurs Odyssey Match Report here
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