FA Carling Premiership Game 7: Saturday 26 September 1998 Tottenham Hotspur 3 - 3 Leeds United (Half-time: 1 - 2) Crowd: 35535 Referee: P Durkin (Portland)
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View from Gangway 47 - John Barber

Found the Phoenix. Good pub. Very friendly. The Spurs fans I chatted to seemed to think that GG would be great for them. Sauntered down to the ground with Steve Sims & Julia Roberts. Noticed the smoke in th distance. "GG's car" Steve quipped. A Tottenham fan turned and asked if I'd been down there on Wednesday. There I am wearing a Leeds baseball cap and a Billy Bremner tshirt - no I hadn't been there on Wednesday. Loads of anti-GG stuff apparently. Got to our bit of the ground with 5 mins to spare, but there were long queues. Don't worry say the police, Kick-off is going to be delayed by 10 mins.

Get in, climb the stairs to the Upper Tier, and... Spurs have now got a wonderful stadium. Good seats, plenty of leg room, steep terraces giving you a good view of every bit of the pitch. The atmosphere was excellent. The game kicked-off and Spurs have soon missed their first chance. Punished after about 3 mins when we score from a corner. Presumably bad defending, something for GG to sort out. If the thought hadn't struck him, he's quickly reminded by the Leeds crowd with "Georgie, Georgie, What's the Score". That's the Leeds theme everytime we score.

However, we quickly do our own spot of bad defending at a corner, and Vega equalises. The opinion around me is that Molenaar is being given a torrid time by Ferdinand and Armstrong, and he ought to be substituted with Weatherall ASAP. Indeed, it does look as if DW is coming on at one point as he takes his track-suit top off. Bu no. Spurs miss two or three clear cut openings, whereas when we next get an obvious chance Jimmy puts it away. 2-1 Leeds. One chant: "Stand Up If You Want the Truth" - not exactly joined in with by the Spurs fans, but certainly applauded by them. We applaud them back.

The "Time to Go" chant has got new words and become Lucas' theme. When he's down with an injury: "Radebe Radebe Radebe Radebe" etc and finished with a shouted "LUCASssssss"

Half time. I was expecting a rousing "WATCOE" - no, it all went quiet, until a "What The Fuck Is Going On" chant alerts us that there is some activity down in the Lower Tier. Eventually, we see Ridsdale trotting away to applause from the fans down there. The rumour goes round the Upper Tier "He's Staying. He's Staying".

The 2nd half kicks off and we're soon 3-1 up with Clyde scrambling it home. And I reckon that's 3 goals from 3 chances, with Spurs being very wasteful with their's. After this we have a fair number of chances to build on 3-1, and increase it to 4-2 once they'd got the second. Best one was an excellent run and cross from Hopkin to Harry who'd done well to take a far post position but headed over. Spurs take off Ferdinand, which doesn't seem a very positive move since they have to chase the game. However their sub pulls a goal back - I was wondering about offside. We take off Clyde for Weatherall - it almost pays immediate dividends when we have a corner and an Arsenal/Adams type move sees Weatherall heading over.

However our defence seems to shift into panic mode. We resort to hoofing, and Nigel is punching anything he can get close to. As to the injury time. It seems about right to me. There were two separate Spurs protestors getting on the pitch for a quick sitdown. There were also subsitutions, although not many injuries that I can remember. When the board was held up to show 4 minutes still to go, I remember checking my watch to see that the game still had to go on to 5:02. It wasn't 5:02 when self-inficted disaster befell us. Nigel punching from the edge of a crowded penalty area, racing to get back in position, as Spurs put the ball back in the area. A good short cross is headed powerfully and accurately by Sol Campbell for the equaliser. Back at the pub afterwards, I'm told only 10 seconds more was played, although I was nervous enough to think that Spurs had time to get a winner. On the basis of the whole game, a draw was a fair result, but we definitely should not have blown it at 3-1 up.

Back at the Pub. The Spurs fans bought several rounds of drinks, so we owe them when we go back next season. I assume GG will keep them up. Julia Roberts had her dancing shoes on. Maggie was nervous for some reason. Gerry and the Pacemakers on the Jukebox, and "You'll Never Walk Alone" was sung incredibly badly. My head was swimming when for Silver Street.

A good day out.

Match Review - John Tomlinson

Most of their fans I chatted to seemed to think GG would be exactly what the team needed, but they still didn't like him.

Martyn: 7 - Nicely bollocked Kewell for not covering the near post and so letting Vega score. Commanded His penalty area quite well, clearly better than Baaaaardson. Couple of good saves.

Hiden: 5 - Didn't seem to do a great deal. Most of their threat was from the right (Anderton/Fox). I'm looking forward to Kelly returning.

Harte: 5 - Ruel Fox made Him look as agile as a dump truck - lost out to him every time. Looked okay going forward when He ran at players but also played some shocking balls to no one at all.

Molenaar: 5 - Big Bob had a poor day at the office. Couldn't get the measure of Ferdinand who looked a cut above the rest. A few nice tackles. but never really in control.

Radebe: 7 - Nowhere near His best game. The usual array of great tackles and commanding controlled play but got caught out more times than usual.

Defence in general: 5 - Very poor. They (Spurs) had so many free crosses landing on free heads it was remarkable they didn't score a shed full of goals - GG said it was the worst his back four had played all season, though I thought Campbell did okay :-)

Halle: 6 - Scored a goal, played a few decent crosses but was largely anonymous. However, I still think He's the best stopgap right winger for the team - in other words, we're desperate.

Hopkin: 7 - Some nice play, some good passes, good tackling, worked hard but got caught in possession, didn't make many runs forward to back up the front two. Tried hard, and I hope He stays in the team, but I'm not sure He's a long term solution.

Bowyer: 8 - MOTM for me. Worked tirelessly, was everywhere. Some great saving play in defence and great support for Jimmy and Clyde. The usual wayward passing accompanied by the usual decisive balls.

Kewell: 6 - Better. Still largely predictable and apparently lazy but when He decided to run at the defence and try out some fancy footwork He almost always got through them and looked really good. His final ball, every time, was poor - due to lack of confidence I suppose, He laid the ball to Jimmy/Clyde when He should have shot and shot lamely when He should have done better or passed.

Jimmy: 7 - Not a good game for Him. He scored, thank Gods, but didn't look much of a threat for much of the game. His first touch really is woeful.

Clyde: 6 - Is it too early to judge? Maybe. Not cutting the mustard thus far, for me, but I hope I'm proved wrong. Plays some nice balls to Jimmy that you wouldn't expect - but not dangerous enough. His goal was His second attempt to capitalise on Spurs' incompetence.

Spurs: Fortunately even shitter than us.

Crowd: We were excellent, they were half asleep, I think.

Ref: Good. The injury time he played to allow Sol to score was only what the Fourth Official had indicated (4 mins).

General: A fair result. We were shite, they were worse - no one deserved to win.

Campbell in to get Spurs out of soup - Ian Ridley

In an open, entertaining game of the sort that has been known to fill him with despair, George Graham was shown what he is inheriting and what he is leaving behind when he takes over as manager of Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday.

Spurs could be an effective attacking force but are a team too easily undermined by sloppy defence. In a curious way, lips will have been licking at his Hampstead home last night.

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