FA Premier Academy League – South
    Spurs Lodge, Luxborough Lane, Chigwell
      Saturday 13th January 2007, 12 noon
 
          SPURS      v     BIRMINGHAM CITY       
       (White/Blue)         (Blue/White)
          4-4-2                4-4-2
 
           0(0)                 0(0)
 
       David Button  1 Dean Lyness
    Takura Mtandari  2 Jared Wilson  
         Joe Martin  3 Darren Campion 
    Daniel Hutchins  4 Ryan Burge
    Troy Archibald-
        Henville(C)  5 Krystian Pearce(C)
        Chris Casey  6 David Joyce
       Cian Hughton  7 James McPike
      Matthew Wells  8 Lewis Green    
  Kyle Fraser-Allen  9 Jamie Sheldon
       David Hutton 10 James O’Brien
    Andros Townsend 11 Dean Lea
 
         Alex Smith 12 Aaron Moses-Ganey
                      (9)46Mins
      Richie Stroud 13        
        Yaser Kasim 14 Tom Lacey
          (8)75Mins
        Luke Medley 15 Sean Hunt
          (2)57Mins

Ref:- E. Amir
Linesmen:- D. Cross, T. Hemmings

It was a cold wet morning for the first home game after the Christmas break which was watched by a fair crowd. Even Martin Jol came along during the second half.

Spurs lined up with Captain Archibald-Henville and Casey at the back with Mtandari at right back and Martin at left. Wells and Hutchins played in central midfield, with Hughton on the right and Townsend on the left. With the absence of Pekhart, Fraser-Allen partnered Hutton up front.

The visitors kicked off attacking the North End with the wind behind them and showed a little vision in the midfield without threatening in front of goal. In fact they never had a shot on goal in the whole of the first half. Button in goal only had a few crosses and a corner or two to catch. In truth, Spurs were little better as they produced one shot on target after half an hour. They always looked the better of the two sides but the final ball was missing. Credit to the two defences who protected their goals well but there was little creativity up front. Spurs build-up was generally slow from the back not using the pace of Fraser-Allen, Townsend or Hutton.

The blues replaced Sheldon at half time who had done nothing and his replacement Moses-Ganey provided a much better threat for them. Spurs still provided the better of the football and forced the keeper to make a second save within the opening minutes. Inglethorpe tried to pep things up by bringing on Medley for Mtandari. This meant moving Hughton to fullback and Fraser-Allen to the right wing, but it did not improve things. Medley was continuously caught off side and on the occasion the linesman missed it he blazed the ball high over the bar.

Kasim came on for the tiring Wells in the middle just before the visitors had forced Button into a save from Moses-Ganey. With just over 10 minutes to go, Spurs had a chance to win it when Hutton got through but his effort went into the side netting. Both sides forced corners but that was the last real chance. There was just time for Archibald-Henville to pick up a yellow card for kicking the ball away after conceding a free kick on the halfway line so he could get back into postion.

This was a disappointing result, considering the weak opposition. I have to say that we missed Pekhart’s height up front as well as the usually dependable midfield. which meant we were not able to dominate the visitors. Next Saturday is the big one with Spurs away to leaders Leicester City who we held to a draw at the Lodge earlier in the season. Before that, on Monday the Reserves play host to Chelsea at Stevenage. Spurs Odyssey will be reporting on that game too!

© Ray Lo

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