Premier Reserve League South
             Brisbane Rd., Leyton
        Wednesday 26th March 2008, 7pm
 
        SPURS        v     DERBY COUNTY
     (All White)            (All Black)
     5-4-1/4-4-2              4-4-2
 
         1(0)                  0(0)
 
      Tommy Forecast 1 Jake Kean
          Adam Smith 2 Alex Forde
            Gilberto 3 Jason Beardsley
Troy
Archibald-Henville(C)4 Jack Booth
       Ricardo Rocha 5 Miles Addison(C)
      Dorian Dervite 6 Mark Dudley
   Kyle Fraser-Allen 7 Aaron Dillon
     Takura Mtandari 8 Matt Richards
       Simon Dawkins 9 Henrik Ojamaa
         Danny Rose 10 Paris Simmons
    Jacques Maghoma 11 Greg Mills
 
      Oscar Jansson 12 Jermaine Johnson
                       (4)46Mins.
            Sam Cox 13 James Severn
          (6)46Mins.   
        Yaser Kasim 14 Callum Keane
     Jonathan Obika 15 Ryan Connolly
         (11)46Mins    (7)73Mins.
         Ryan Mason 16 Luke Garton
         (9)73Mins.
 
Coaches:-
            C.Allen                        
 
Scorers:-
        Obika 73 (pen.) 

Booked:-
                       Mills 27, (Foul)

Red Card:-
                       Addison 38, (Studs up)
 
Referee:- A.Salisbury

Assistants:- J.O'Brien, A.Field, J.Kelly
 
Attendance:- About 100

Spurs made hard work of a game against a young Derby side that lost its Captain early on. Without a cutting edge they struggled to beat the bottom side who have not won a game.

Spurs lined up with Dervite in the middle of a trio of centre-backs with Archibald-Henville on the right and Rocha to his left. Smith started at right back and Gilberto on the left. Mtandari and Maghoma played in centre midfield with Fraser-Allen wide on the right and Rose on the left in support of Dawkins.

Spurs defended the right end for the first half and it quickly became clear that the players were not comfortable in this formation. Rose drifted inside and Gilberto pushed forward. When Fraser-Allen switched to the left wing early on Smith pushed up. With so many changes to the team there was a lack of understanding between players which caused much of the play to break down. Derby defended in depth as well, which resulted in both keepers having little to do all evening.

It was nearly twenty minutes before either goal was threatened when Rose put a shot on the turn over the bar. This was followed by Fraser-Allen firing just wide. Simmons had a try at the other end ,but it went high and wide. Mills was booked for a late tackle on Smith as he cut inside. Richards hit a freekick wide with just over five minutes left of the half. When the ball was back in play Maghoma tried to take it through the middle and when he pushed it a little too far ahead of him Addison made an attempt to win the ball. He only succeeded in catching Maghoma with his studs for which the Ref showed him a straight red. After treatment Maghoma was able to continue and put the next chance wide.

Allen made two changes for the second half with Cox coming on for Dervite and moving to central midfield. Maghoma was replaced by Obika who went to wide left as Spurs changed to a more familiar 4-4-2 with Rose in support of Dawkins. With the visitors defending deeper Spurs still found it hard to break them down. Spurs began to move the ball wide looking for crosses into the box and Dawkins was presented with a good chance in the area which he miss-hit. Rose hit another effort over and Archibald-Henville headed a corner wide of the far post. The ball was worked to Obika at the far post and as he turned Johnson to lay the ball back he was fouled by the Rams' defender and the Ref pointed to the spot. Obika took the kick himself and drove it low into the right corner of the goal with the keeper going the other way.

Allen brought on Mason in place of Dawkins. Mason took up a position behind Obika in attack with Rose moving to the left. Spurs pushed for a second with Mtandari hitting a shot over and Rose poping up on the right to put the ball over the bar. As the game moved into added time Kean made the only save of the night when he held a drive by Rose. Smith had a go from distance but like many before him put it over the goal.

In truth this was a poor performance from Spurs with only one shot on target in a game where they held a numerical advantage for so long. They had no one who could spread the play or provide the killer pass. The closest player was Hutchins who was in the dug-out but not on the bench. Some allowance can be made for the changes made with players coming back from injury while others were on international duty. But, they were playing the worst team in the league who had not won a game and contained only two players, before losing Addison, who had any first team experience.

It was interesting to note that we played Derby in the opening match of the season and we only had one player from that game this evening and Derby had two in their corresponding starting line-up.

The Reserves will play Fulham at Brisbane Road on Monday 31st March who will be a tougher test. Before that the Academy players will have a game on Saturday morning at Portsmouth.

Ray

Follow @spursodyssey