Just for shits and giggles and because I alluded to the Spurs-Stoke game in another thread, here is a blow by blow account of my latest trip "down the Lane" (Park Lane lower, as always) for Tim Sherwood's first home league win in charge at Tottenham. Honestly, with him
and Sir Les running around, it's like the Boys Club mentality of Arry's reign is back. I love it.
Sunday 29th December 2013 - Spurs (1) 3 - 0 (0) Stoke Soldado 37[pen], Dembele 65, Lennon 69
So, we would have gotten there in plenty of time, but a fucking CAR FIRE on the A10 - the main road through Enfield and into Haringey/Tottenham - caused massive traffic disruption. It took FOREVER to get to the island to turn down that way, and we realized what was happening. Cars were getting onto the island without realizing the A10 was closed, then having to go all the way around to leave at a different exit. Thankfully my friend and I spotted in time, took a different exit rather than going all the way around, and managed to park up in a side street in Edmonton and jog a mere mile to the ground. We only missed the first 10 minutes.
The first half was fairly nervous, and at first I struggled to understand what the inbred scum from the Britannia Cauldron Of Hate were incessantly chanting, then it hit me - they were chanting "Foreskin! Foreskin!" Amidst all the furore of allegations of "anti-Semitic" language from
the home fans - what a crock of shit - will the FA or the police do anything about that? Of course they fucking won't. David Baddiel can suck my uncircumcised cock, too.
Anyhoo, we got a penalty after Adebayor's overhead kick went nowhere. At first I thought he had taken a shove in the back, but the replays showed that "England man" (LOL) Ryan Shawcross had confused football with basketball, and blocked Ade's shot with
both hands. Can't do that, you leg-breaking fuck. Even before the ball was in Soldado's hands, I turned to my mate and said "He won't miss," just as I had in the Hull game, the Anzhi game and so on. "Don't say that, you've jinxed it!" hissed the gnome. "He WON'T miss. He's made of ice." I insisted. Rob stepped up and, cool as a cucumber, sent Tommy Sorensen the wrong way. 1-0, vindicated. Carved from ice, as I say.
"Soldado.... WOAH.... Soldado.... WOAH! He came from sunny Spain! To play at White Hart Lane!"
Into the second half, and a few performances were standing out. Paulinho executed some lovely dragbacks and flickovers prompting me to exclaim "Tekkers!" against my will. Aaron Lennon was a constant menace, Adebayor an effective fulcrum yet again (who'd have thought I'd be typing THAT two weeks ago??) but for me, Man of the Match was emerging as Moussa Dembele. Much-derided by myself in the past as unfocused and/or lazy, in this game he did it all. Shielded the back four, confident enough to go forward, never dispossessed, never gave the ball away, held it up well. I sense most of the WHL faithful were more enamoured by Paulinho's crowd-pleasing display. Enter the pantomime villain, Charlie Adam.
Now, backstory - Charlie Adam is loathed by many football fans, but Spurs fans probably the most. TWICE he crocked Gareth Bale at vital points, once playing for Blackpool during the home straight of the 10-11 season (during which without Bale we dropped many points) and again playing for Liverpool in a pre-season friendly. He also got sent off for a second yellow early in 11-12 season for a tackle on fan favourite Scott Parker, during a 4-0 (HAH!) drubbing we inflicted on his Liverpool mob. On Sunday, Adam took to the pitch to rapturous chants of "WANKER! WANKER! WANKER!" followed by a rousing chorus of "You know what you arrrrrrrrre..... CHARLIE ADAM, you know what you are!" When Stoke won a corner at the opposite side of the pitch, the deafening boos told us who was taking it. So, on 62 minutes, this fucking thug and cretin fouled Paulinho, and the Brazilian had to go off injured. Adam didn't even get a yellow card for his latest act of thuggery.
Postscript - today we learned that Paulinho suffered "severe ligament damage" and will be out for at least four weeks. Some things never change. Charlie Adam, YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE.
Anyhoo, on 65 Soldado gave the ball to Dembele just outside the box. The Belgian shimmied to the left, turned back onto his right and feinted to shoot, then just as I was saying "He'll shoot," to my mate, he turned back onto his left and drilled into the far bottom corner to finally stamp authority onto the game and make the score a fairer reflection of the second-half dominance. And to be fair to Moussa, he deserved it too.
"WOAAAAAAAH Dembele, he's a Yid, WOAAAAAAAH Dembele, he's a Yid!"
Mere minutes later on 69, the suddenly-confident-again Christian Eriksen picked the ball up and bombed forward before releasing Soldado. His ball across the box took a knick off Adebayor's toe and span up in the air, falling kindly for Aaron Lennon to take it on his chest, and hit a looping volley into the top corner. Game, shot and match, and the scoreline had the gloss the performance deserved. Azza, like Dembele, deserved this goal for the shift he'd put in. Thankfully we were able to give him a deafening ovation when he came off for Lamela, who also looked a player reborn with some neat turns.
"One Aaron Lennon... there's only one Aaron Lennon... one Aaron Lennnnnnnnnnnnon!"
EDITORIAL - the best thing about the photo is the miserable look on that cunt Charlie Adam's face.
All that really remained was for former Spurs hero Pete Crouch to head Stoke's sole effort on goal tamely into Hugo Lloris' hands, and his successor Emmanuel Adebayor to receive a warm round of applause for the shift he put in, going off with ten minutes left for Etienne Capoue. All in all, great day out, good attacking football (yes, I know it was only Stoke) and I can't think of a shower of bastards I'd rather have seen us humiliate than Sparky's band of thugs and their traveling army of Sloth.
All is well aboard the good ship Sherwood. For now, at least.
