Topic: Eyewitness Report: Tottenham Hotspur 2 - Liverpool 1

[Harinder]

The short version, as per recommendation, is pffft. Oh and now go here and be the internet warrior you know you can be http://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=300339.0

Ok. Now the longer one. No-one really wants to write an eye witness report about a defeat as it’s not as much fun. There isn’t that buoyant expectancy of the onward, upward charging cavalry of Liverpool’s army. Team and fans alike. Instead there is that despondent feeling of what could have been, almost was and had it been another day.

So this time around the journey for me to the match was a relatively short affair. Finish work, get to Liverpool Street station and take pick of trains running every 10 minutes or so to White Hart Lane. 1800 from Platform 1 it was then. Suffice to say the train was packed with Spurs fans. I could see few Liverpool fans tucked away in the corners of the carriages but otherwise it was Tottenham Hotspur’s Blue and White Army.

As it is more of a dark blue I wonder if they could be considered Smurfs after their week in Benidorm? 

The Norff Landan massive are a hilarious bunch. The conversations on the train over were around what Pav did last for them (Roman Pavlyuchenko), is Benny any good? (he was great in Crossroads) and Andre Villas Boas or the twiffic Harry Redknapp. I’ve had to translate given the cockney was strong in these ones and even myself, born and bred in West London, was struggling at times. I tried miserably yesterday to write what they were saying but given no-one had a clue why labour something so painful?

Cos its hilarious

“ahhh bwuv bwuv bwuv. Itsh shawll abbaart hayveebee innit blud”
“nah man nah man, woz ‘Arry for me shtar”
“geez datsh ma man right deere. Do jya reckon Freedel or Hugo in goal n dat”
“shawarma sheesh kebabsh and showaddywaddyaknow”

Ok I made the last one up but you catch my drift. The prematch meeting place of the Haringey Irish Club was a stones throw away from the station. A mix of Liverpool and Spurs fans there. But there was NO, I repeat NO food for the travelling Kop… I only saw a Spurs menu :-D And even then it looked like it was running late!



Just kidding. If you've ever been to a Punjabi family function in a community centre, this was just the same. Minus the catering and minus a dodgy DJ 

The last time I went to this fixture we won 3-2 after being behind 1-0. This time we went behind and stayed behind. The first half was painful. First 2 to 3 minutes and with Enrique bursting forward I actually thought we were going to do something. We did. We let them score. Bale down the wings, ball across and Lennon putting it in and 1-0 to Spurs. For some odd reason I took this moment to look around the away fans end and was then surprised at its similarity to the Shed End at Stamford Bridge. Blue seats, yellow barriers and even the same kind of shape and layout. Eyes back on the pitch and we look as if we may make it back in to the match. Few corners but nothing out of them and oh hang on, we’re in. Lloris is out, goal is open, Hendoooooooohhhhhhh NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Really deep sigh. I’m sure there was a Liverpool main site article about Henderson staying behind to practice shooting. Note to Brendan – put him back in detention!

And thank you Spurs. More misery. 2-0. I mean Reina sadly couldn’t have done much. What’s the point of the wall?

The rest of the half is a blur really. More rinse and repeat football by Liverpool. Pass around the back, try the wing and it breaks down and we invite the ball on to us and we don’t press for it back. Sigh again.

Half time musings in no particular order

 - I’m at the match standing next to 2 Rawk mods. If they had ban hammers for our fans would they use Thor’s hammer on the fellas with the 2 phones in front of them? One of them wearing a beauty from the Liverpool FC Official Store. One of those spangly Zip hoodies you'd buy someone you purposely want to laugh at

- Lents is a seriously passionate fan. It’s infectious

- 2 lads behind me don’t like Henderson. I point he actually passes and moves which is more than can be said for some who just bypass moving

- Same 2 lads don’t like Gerrard’s corners. It’s hard to right now

- Stevie. The midfield engine V8 humming 500bhp type. Petrol not included today. Maybe not tomorrow either

- Is the Brendan Rodgers playing belief an experiment? Is it like school where you needed a hypothesis, method, control and conclusions? Is it bucket chemistry? Do our players think its Astrophysics?

- Can Jose get any bigger? Can he start training Raheem?

Second Half. Well we start brightly but cannot convert attacking intent into a goal. Some of our ball control and passing does leave a bit to desire. I’m sure more can be made of it but not me. I just see it as a sad indictment of how we were overall. We played at times with promise and then just let ourselves down. A couple of times we can see the major difference. Ball coming towards our player and Spurs already moving into nick it back. Vice versa is not the same. On comes Jonjo and hello yellow card? :-( No. Dowd keeps card in pocket. We’re playing better but just can’t buy a goal.

But we got an own goal courtesy of Gareth “Cheeeeeet” Bale. 2-1. Game on. Jonjo cross in, shot on goal, ping, pong, Bale, Goal

One day you just know Jose Enrique is going to score a 30 yard screamer. Just that day wasn’t this one. You do believe it though as his efforts deserve it

The remainder of the 20 minutes plays out as expected. A few good balls put through and few more episodes of Bad Control and this soap opera of a match ended.

Hats off to Phil Dowd though. He’s put in a blinding effort in his audition to play a panto villain. He must enjoy being hated

[royhendo]

Brilliant mate, as always. Ta!

[Fat Scouser]

Great stuff. I know that train to and from Liverpool Street well. Worra mare, indeed Bwuv. It's one of the games I used to get to every season from here. Can't say I miss that journey. I've got a hilarious tale about it one season. I might even tell it when this cracking piece has ran it's course. Good stuff, indeed.

[vicgill]

Brilliant that mate, had me laughing, really enjoyed it

[redgriffin73]

Great read.

[Kopite B205]

Harsh assessment of how we played. I thought it was one of our best performances of the season - first 20 aside.

[hoppyLFC]

Thanks for taking the time to post this Harinder.....great read.

[Kop202]

Ha. Great read mate. Spent some time in that Irish club as well. One room was absolutely packed with people. And then next to it was a huge huge hall, which was half empty, but you could easily get hold of a pint.

[Kovai Red]

Surely Suarez must've spitted into his mouth  He is that horrible

[MassDriver]

Brilliant read mate..

[Jagdip]

A nice read, thanks Harinder.

[Always_A_Red]

Harsh assessment of how we played. I thought it was one of our best performances of the season - first 20 aside.

Its much easier when a team is sitting back and is comfortable with their 2-0 lead. They allowed us to pass the ball around the first two thirds then as soon as we looked like we wanted to move forward, they pressed and countered. Its what all teams do to us and we have no answer to it.

The fact we passed the ball around and had more possession than them when we were 2-0 down is in my opinion, irrelevant. We failed to score ourselves. It was only through a complete freak of a goal through the help of Bale's face that we actually scored.

How we can say that we were 'magnificent' or 'fantastic' is beyond me.

To the OP : Thanks for the read. Enjoyed that 

[Timbo's Goals]

How we can say that we were 'magnificent' is beyond me.

Easy. Draw on more than half a century of intense watching the Reds week in week out. Compare in the mind's eye the entire 90 minutes of wednesday night's performance [not just this mythical final 70 minutes that seems to have emerged] with countless others down the years and arrive at a considered conclusion that the football we played against Spurs was as good - bar some decent good fortune [Bale's ugly mush apart], a referee actually dispensing some fairness, a herculean Spurs defensive performance and some desperately needed composure in front of goal - as anything I've witnessed down there. Ever.

Hope that helps to clarify your apparent mental block on how to give YOUR FUCKIN TEAM credit where and when it's due.

Same goes for Harinder and his whimsical take on his evening. Credit for taking the time and trouble and certainly reasonably pleasant enough reading in one sense but regrettably tempered by a somewhat lukewarm analysis    seaming through it of our tremendous effort at striving to claw back an inestimably more than deserved result after conceding two goals that were the stuff of the very worst footballing breakaway nightmares.

 

[Chivasino]

Great read, Harinder.

[Harinder]

Easy. Draw on more than half a century of intense watching the Reds week in week out. Compare in the mind's eye the entire 90 minutes of wednesday night's performance [not just this mythical final 70 minutes that seems to have emerged] with countless others down the years and arrive at a considered conclusion that the football we played against Spurs was as good - bar some decent good fortune [Bale's ugly mush apart], a referee actually dispensing some fairness, a herculean Spurs defensive performance and some desperately needed composure in front of goal - as anything I've witnessed down there. Ever.

Hope that helps to clarify your apparent mental block on how to give YOUR FUCKIN TEAM credit where and when it's due.

Same goes for Harinder and his whimsical take on his evening. Credit for taking the time and trouble and certainly reasonably pleasant enough reading in one sense but marred by the utterly shite analysis seaming through it of our tremendous effort at striving to claw back an inestimably more than deserved result after conceding two goals that were the stuff of the very worst footballing breakaway nightmares.

 

To be fair it was in the context of eyewitness. What you're feeling when you're there. On reflection things are never that bad (although I hope I didn't paint it so disastrously)

Apologies if I did. The next one will be much more glorious I'm sure

[Timbo's Goals]

To be fair it was in the context of eyewitness. What you're feeling when you're there. On reflection things are never that bad (although I hope I didn't paint it so disastrously)

Apologies if I did. The next one will be much more glorious I'm sure

 

Apologies for the starkness of my retort re your report. In fact I'm changing what I said because your objective was a sauntering light hearted take on your night not any intensive study of our current form. So it should be viewed in that context. Not in the context of my growing irritation at certain Reds [including it seems Jan Molby who often tries far too hard to take the cool detached street cred view on these things] seemingly hellbent on giving the team scant if any credit for what was a terrific effort and fine performance if not result.

 

[Harinder]

Apologies for the starkness of my retort re your report. In fact I'm changing what I said because your objective was a sauntering light hearted take on your night not any intensive study of our current form. So it should be viewed in that context. Not in the context of my growing irritation at certain Reds [including it seems Jan Molby who often tries far too hard to take the cool detached street cred view on these things] seemingly hellbent on giving the team scant if any credit for what was a terrific effort and fine performance if not result.

You should hear Molby's views on the Academy. Even starker.

He came from an era where you had be at your very best and a quality level that would have Europe's elite banging on the door. His own words at a Legends function were really hard hitting.

Roll on the weekend!

[Timbo's Goals]

You should hear Molby's views on the Academy. Even starker.

He came from an era where you had be at your very best and a quality level that would have Europe's elite banging on the door. His own words at a Legends function were really hard hitting.

Roll on the weekend!

What always makes me smile about Jan is the rewritten history by so many of our fan base regarding him and his contributions to the club. Don't get me wrong I like the fella. Always have done. He had terrific ability and he was and always will be one of the best long passers we've ever had with great vision and that special knack of finding and creating space.

But the reality is whillst he was with us for a fair time bar the double season he was scarcely ever a regular first teamer. Except for when he came out of the nick he was invariably a couple of stone overweight and he'd frustrate you every bit as much as he'd thrill you.

He's tremendously loyal to the area which is a thing I personally love about him. However, the problem with that is like with so many of the quality ex-reds who hang around the club is that from time to time you can just see the green eyed monster emerging with their begrudging acknowledgements or cynical street cred posturings.

His take on Wednesday night was utter shite, making no attempt at any sensible contextualising of the pattern and story of the game and what Rodgers was saying. The manner in which he wrote it,  it's as if every past Liverpool team always clawed back a deficit. Sure they often did against shite opposition but by no means against top notch opponents. In any case the teams he played in were tried and tested not in some embyronic stage like ours now and very few ever outplayed a decent Spurs team on their own midden even when they won.