Premier U-21 League 2014-15
               White Hart Lane, Tottenham
                Friday 8th May 2014, 7pm

                SPURS      v     FULHAM
             (White/Blue)     (Black/Orange)
               4-2-3-1           4-2-3-1

                 2(1)              0(0)

               Luke McGee  1  Marek Rodak
       Kyle Walker-Peters  2  Noe Baba
           Connor Ogilvie  3  Jordan Evans
               Grant Ward  4  Dean O'Halloran
          Milos Veljkovic  5  Jonathan Buatu(C)
        Christian Maghoma  6  Liam Donnelly
           Kenneth McEvoy  7  Buomesca Tue Na Bangna
            Harry Winks(C) 8  Lasse Vigen Christensen
      Shaquile Coulthirst  9  Adam Taggart
            Joshua Onomah 10  Emerson Hyndman
             Nathan Oduwa 11  Ange-Freddy Plumain

            Filip Lesniak 12  Magnus Norman
             (11)90+2Mins
           Jonathan Miles 13
          Shayon Harrison 14  Luca De La Torre
                (7)61Mins     (4)52Mins
           William Miller 15  Aaron Redford
                (9)79Mins
            Aaron McEneff 16  Solomon Sambou
                              (8)46Mins
Scorers:-
          Maghoma 16
          Harrison 90+4 

Coach:-
          U. Ehiog            P. Grant

Attendance:- 479

Referee:– N. Hair
Assistants:– N. Smith & A. Wilson
(Mr. Smith replaced Mr. Hair after 21 minutes)
Fourth Official:– L. Lungarella

It was a drizzly evening for the visit of Fulham to the Lane in Spurs' last U-21 home game of the season. This was Spurs' second game of the week having travelled to Manchester on Monday afternoon where they played out an entertaining 3-3 draw with City. On the same day Fulham lost 3-1 to Chelsea. Spurs welcomed back two of their loan players, Coulthirst from York City and Ward from Coventry City. Spurs beat Fulham at Motspur Park 2-0 with goals from Oduwa and Akindayini earlier in the season.

Spurs lined up with McGee in goal behind Veljkovic and Maghoma with Walker-Peters at right back and Ogilvie on the left. Winks and Ward started out as defensive midfield with Onomah flanked by McEvoy on the right and Oduwa on the left in support of Coulthirst up front.

The game started ten minutes late with Spurs defending the Park Lane in the first half. The home side quickly got into their fast-paced passing game, moving the ball quickly using the full width of the pitch. Oduwa had the first chance with a cross shot from the left which Rodak tipped away at the far post. The ball went straight to McEvoy who scooped his effort over the bar.

Walker-Peters got forward, exchanging passes with Onomah and McEvoy, before coming inside to fire wide. Onomah was played in, but his effort took a deflection before Rodak saved to his right. Walker-Peters was fouled on another run on the right. Ward took the free kick, and Maghoma jumped to head inside the far post for his first goal at this level to put Spurs in front.

Ward had an effort just wide before the referee came off with a calf injury and was replaced by his senior assistant, with the fourth official running the line.

Plumain headed a corner kick wide just after half an hour for the visitors' first chance. McEvoy played in Onomah for a chance that was wide before a long ball over the top was mis-judged by Veljkovic allowing Taggart a run on goal. The striker put the ball wide as McGee came out making himself big. Walker-Peters was continually getting forward and provided the last chance of the half, whipping in a dangerous low cross.

Fulham made one change for the start of the second half and the officials also changed from red to yellow shirts. The visitors had an early chance when Donnelly fired wide. Walker-Peters got down the right, passing inside to Ward, who played in Oduwa on the left for a shot that was wide of the far post.

After Fulham made another change, Onomah played in Oduwa who hit a dipping volley which struck the top of the crossbar. The Spurs wideman followed that up with another strike that went into the side netting. Coulthirst was played through by Ward but Rodak saved his effort. With Walker-Peters doing as much attacking down the right side as McEvoy, Ehiogu replaced McEvoy with Harrison in search of more goals.

De La Torre was played in by a reverse pass by O'Halloran but fired wide with only the keeper to beat. Harrison drew a save from Rodak before Plumain got down the left with his effort deflecting off Walker-Peters for a corner. Walker-Peters went down the other end slipping a pass through to Onomah who whipped the ball across the area.

Donnelly received the ball at the far post forcing a save from McGee and with the ball not being cleared Sambou saw his effort blocked for a corner by Maghoma. With Fulham beginning to push for an equaliser, Spurs replaced Coulthirst with Miller who went to the left flank with Oduwa moving to the right and Harrison moving inside. Taggart had a header over the bar which prompted Lesniak coming on for Oduwa in added time.

Spurs were trying to see out the game, but they broke out and Onomah hit a long cross to the far post where Miller got the ball under control before laying it on for Harrison to score at the near post. The final whistle went a minute later for Spurs to take the points.

It was a good attacking display by Spurs against poor opposition. With Winks and Ward pushing up they were playing more like 4-3-3 and with Walker-Peters spending so much time in midfield it was almost like Spurs were playing with three at the back. The full back still got back to do his job defending his side. It took so long for Spurs to get that second goal, and I worried whenever Fulham had a break, as they were getting into striking range of the Spurs goal, and might have denied us of the win. The win moves Spurs up to seventh, level with Leicester with one game to play. That game is away to Everton on Monday 18th at Goodison. Everton beat West Ham 2-1 this evening and are 11th in the table.

Ray

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