Fan Report: Tottenam Hotspur 4-0 Peterborough United

An affair even more one-sided than the win over West Ham last Monday saw Spurs see off Peterborough United 4-0 at White Hart Lane and thus take their place in the draw for the fourth round of the FA Cup.

Non-stop possession and pressure from the kick-off was finally rewarded in the 35th minutes when Niko Kranjcar cut inside from the left and curled a shot in from 20 yards. We’d hit the woodwork three times before scoring (one an astonishing miss from close range by Defoe) and also been denied several times by England U21 keeper Joe Lewis, most notably when he turned a Huddlestone piledriver round his left hand post. 

Most of the early openings we created were down to the dancing feet of Kranjcar and the passing of Huddlestone, both of whom were in the mood to take full advantage of the room available in front of the Peterborough back four. With Hutton and Bale taking spots in the defence our full backs were far more committed to attack than usual and both got behind the Posh defence repeatedly to square crosses across Lewis but beyond the reach of Defoe or Keane, until after half time when both the second and third goals came from this tactic as first Kranjcar and then Defoe met Bale cutbacks with confident finishes. The final goal came in second half injury time when Robbie struck home a nice penalty after Danny Rose was brought down by one of his ex-team mates.

The away section was full of folk down from the Fens hoping to see their team rise to the occasion. If they were going to do so though it wasn’t going to be due to the rousing support of the travelling fans most of whom sat quietly on their hands for the duration watching their team get mullered. The exception came when Rose either warmed up or terrorised their right back after he replaced Kranjcar when they felt moved enough to chuck a few boos in his direction. No idea why. The Spurs fans too were strangely quiet, seemingly content to sit back and admire until the goals started flying in. 

Star of the show was Kranjcar but it was Gomes who did most to preserve our current run of five clean sheets (oh for another one this coming Sunday!) when he flung himself to his left to keep out Mackail-Smith’s effort from range after an hour. As is traditional to point out, his lack of involvement in such a one-sided affair made his flying tip over even more laudable. Mackail-Smith was rewarded with cries of “you’re just a shit Robbie Savage”. Posh sub Shaun Batt came next closest to causing concern amongst the home crowd when he spectacularly threw up whilst on all fours on the half way line. Nice.

All of us have seen us struggle against lower division teams at this stage of the Cup, this though was a routine, well executed win. We played some lovely attacking stuff, my only criticism would be a tendency to try and walk the ball in. Those at the back, Dawson in particular, never let their guard drop and also deserve praise. Fingers crossed for the draw for the next round.

By MF

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