Premier League 2, Division 1, 2017-18
      Hotspur Way, Whitewebbs Lane, Enfield
        Saturday 7th April 2018, 12 noon

            SPURS     v    DERBY COUNTY
         (White/Blue)      (All Yellow)
           4-1-4-1            4-2-3-1

             4(3)               2(2)

      Alfie Whiteman  1  Joshua Barnes
       Timothy Eyoma  2  Joe Bateman
    Anthony Georgiou  3  Louie Sibley
        George Marsh  4  Max Bird
 Christian Maghoma(C) 5  Ethan Wassall
Brooklyn Lyons-Foster 6  Lee Buchanan
       Shilow Tracey  7  Aaron Eyoma
Tashan Oakley-Boothe  8  Alex Babos(C)
    Kazaiah Sterling  9  Cameron Cresswell
    Joseph Pritchard 10  Tyree Wilson
     Keanan Bennetts 11  Jason Knight

          Jack Roles 12  Lewis Walker
                         (10)72Mins
      Brandon Austin 13  Matthew Yates
        Dylan Duncan 14  Jayden Mitchell-Lawson
          (10)84Mins     (7)84Mins
         Jaden Brown 15  Sven Karic
           (3)62Mins
       Reo Griffiths 16  Matthew Taylor
          (11)77Mins

Scorers:-
 Barnes (o.g.) 9  Cresswell 16, 18
 Pritchard 11
 Georgiou 30
 Stirling (pen) 90+4

Booked:-
     Marsh 63(Foul)      Eyoma 62(Foul)
     Tracey 69(KBA)

Coach:-
        Wayne Burnett    Darren Wassell

Attendance:- 45

Referee:– Sam Purkiss
Assistants:– Darin Geary & Gary Jerden
Fourth Official:– Oliver Jackson

It was a cloudy morning with a cool wind from the South which held up the ball. The visitors - Derby County - were a point above Spurs in ninth place so a win would lift Spurs up the table. Derby lost their last game 3-0 to Chelsea while Spurs completed the double over Arsenal 3-1. Last season Spurs beat Derby 2-0 at Stevenage but lost this season 1-0 at Pride Park. An interesting point about this match was that Timothy Eyoma was facing his brother Aaron again after getting the better of him in the last game when he came off the bench for the gooners.

Spurs lined up with Whiteman in goal behind Maghoma and Tanganga with Eyoma at right back and new Cypriot international Georgiou on the left. Marsh anchored the midfield with Oakley-Boothe and Pritchard ahead of him. They were flanked by Tracey on the right and Bennetts on the left in support of Sterling up front.

Having lost the toss, Spurs kicked off the first half attacking the North end with the wind behind them. Pritchard had an early chance when his effort hit the far post and went for a corner. Spurs took the lead when Barnes tried to put his foot on a back pass but let the ball roll under his foot and into the net.

Spurs scored the second soon after when Bennetts cut inside and played in Pritchard on the left to drive across the keeper into the net. Derby responded well and Aaron Eyoma got behind Georgiou who recovered to concede a corner. The corner was not cleared and Cresswell fired in the loose ball. A slip by Georgiou allowed Eyoma to get away and his cross was finished by Cresswell for his second.

Derby kept up the pressure and got round the back on the left with Georgiou clearing Cresswell's back flick off the line. Spurs regained their composure and pushed for another goal which came when Derby half cleared a corner that Georgiou picked up nearly 30 yards out. Georgiou's low drive found the right corner of the Derby net to regain the lead. Whiteman saved from Knight in added time to keep Spurs in front at the break.

There were no changes for the start of the second half which saw Derby push up and close the home side down with help from the wind. Knight fired over following a corner and Bird shot wide before Aaron Eyoma was booked when he stopped Oakley-Boothe getting away, catching him from behind in the centre circle.

Spurs made their first change with Brown replacing Georgiou at left back. Marsh was next to go into the ref's book with a block tackle. Bennetts' free kick was saved by Barnes covering his far post after Tracey was fouled. Tracey was booked when he kicked the ball away after conceding a free kick which led to Whiteman saving from Knight.

Tracey redeemed himself getting down the right from Bennetts' pass and hitting the post. Minutes later Tracey again got down the right and squeezed the ball inside the keeper hitting the near post and along the goal line until cleared.

Aaron Eyoma drove wide of the far post for a corner before Spurs made their second change with Griffiths replacing Bennetts. Griffiths moved up front and Stirling moved to the left. Sibley got down the left and crossed for Babos to head but Whiteman saved. Spurs' last change saw Duncan come on in place of Pritchard in midfield as they looked to see out the game. Whiteman saved from Walker and Knight fired wide following a corner. In added time Stirling chased a long ball that looked as if it would be cleared but he fell over the defender's leg to win a penalty. The striker took the kick himself sending the keeper the wrong way netting in the left corner to settle the game with almost the last kick of the game.

This was a good win for Spurs to move them up a place at the visitors' expense. Our last two games are against Chelsea and Manchester City when it will be tougher to gain points. Spurs should be safe from relegation now leaving Sunderland and Manchester United most likely to go down (if United can be relegated!). Spurs played well moving the ball quickly with Derby newboy Eyoma causing most problems for the visitors who began the game looking to hold onto the point they started with. Having hit the woodwork three times Spurs could have won by a bigger margin. Spurs travel to Stamford Bridge on Friday unbeaten in six to face Chelsea who have won four of their last five.

Spurs U-18s went to Fulham this morning and won 2-1 in what looked like a bad tempered match which saw six yellow cards. Fulham took an early lead through Timmy Abraham (younger brother of Chelsea's Tammy on loan at Swansea). Armando Shashoua equalised before half-time with Troy Parrot getting the winner.

Ray

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