Good morning.
It’s all over the front page, Foy gives you ref rage.
The live scores are in, it’s all over bar the shouting and it seems that could go on for days. Yes it was only one game but my take is that as Tottingham fans of no short measure we went – in our minds at least – from title contenders to a bunch of ponces that buckle the first time we face a bit of bustle.
The Foy Factor was a disaster. Of course it was. And it’s a sad indictment that referees like this are still getting paid to wreck the game. Refs like this went out with the Indians. They make a mistake, get chastised and then instead of trying to do their job better they spend the remainder of the game in a bloody minded funk making bad decision after bad decision to hammer home to the players that they are in charge.
Technology is long long overdue. People like Foy must not take this personally. I couldn’t do a better job. Nor could 99% of the people screaming despicable things at him from the stands, bar stools and from their sofas.
And that is the point. Human error is making a mockery of a game that is now unmanageable by man alone. If I ask you what 12 times 3 is, I’d ideally like you to ‘do it in your head’. But if I ask you what 3.84746 times 59,8243 is, I’d really expect you to produce a pocket calculator.
Player ratings then.
6.912 No King and so everything deteriorated from the moment the team sheet was announced. Do our defenders know that they are primarily there to defend? Brad pulled off some great saves and it could have been worse. Much worse.
5.678 It must have been a close run thing between him and Gallas as to who was going to watch the second half from the stands. He was rattled, roughed up and remaindered by Stoke. They gave him no time, ignored his moves and reduced him to much booting of the ball away in a panic.
5.321 Shakier than Shakin’ Stevens. These are the games where an old war horse like Billy are supposed to put a shift in. Instead we got a Freddie Starr impressionist wearing Jimminy Cricket’s wellies.
5.0121 Another guy who on paper should have been mixing it up with their part time pipe fitters who looked ‘a bit confused’ by all the attacking business. The red was fiasco.
6.457 On the whole he didn’t have the worst game in the world. No one came out of this looking like a superstar but he was relatively sound at the back and threw a few half decent shapes upfront.
6.732 Dangerous enough when in possession but he had so little of the ball. Probably as he was playing on the grass and wasn’t in a circus trapeze. The Stoke aerial style doesn’t suit footballers and being a quality footballer it didn’t suit PNB.
7.001Uninspiring at the beginning. Some poor passes. But he’s an intelligent chap and soon got to tackling their weakness which was playing football. The penalty? Well done Manu.
5.633 Frustrating appearance. He did try, but running at that lot was largely futile. He was too small, too frail. His shot was naive. How the hell he thought one of his little blast off his instep was going to find it’s way through about 14 legs that looked like tree trunks is beyond me.
7.002 Our constant almost singular glimmer of hope. If you take into consideration how much he’s bulked out and what great physical shape he is in – it shows just what we were up against when they knocked him over like he was made of balsa wood.
5.674 Never got into it and it seemed we lacked the creativity to allow him to get into it. He didn’t have that space that he needs – and as for his usual devilish flicks and tricks – we got a far more subdued showing. Made me laugh when a card was flashed and as Foy had been so so bad he initially thought it was for him.
7.003 His first half showing was pretty awful. Off the pace, off the boil and generally out of it. He’s one cool cat though and for the second half he did his absolute up most to turn the sinking ship around. Very nice penalty. Nearly a very nice goal from open play.
Subs: Defoe’s movement created some distraction and space, Bassong headed the ball out at least four times. Might have been five.
These things even themselves out over a season is a phrase often spouted by the football pundits and to be fair we got the win there last season down to what can only be described as dodgy refereeing. Saying that, I counted 8 game making decisions that were wrongly called by Foy, therefore if you take back 1 of these for the game last season that leaves us with 7 due this season…. :shifty:
As for the team, I thought PNB was awful yesterday, on a one man mission to win the game without the ability of the players he pushed out of position to achieve his goal and therefore deserves a lowly 2 and a harsh talking to as to the simple fact that this is a team game and when you are picked as a holding midfielder that is what you should be doing…..
Ironically Foy got that call right for the wrong reason, as he missed the obvious assault on Gomes, but failed to see the ball had crossed the line, which really makes him a twat… twice!
Stoke deserved to be leading at half time, but only by 1 goal. We won the 2nd half & should have won the match except for Foy. VDV was terrible & should have gone off at half time instead of Azza.
Have to agree ref VDV I thought the metropolitan swordsman deserved to start and make VDV work to claim his place back as VDV did to Defoe.
There were tears on the streets of Pattaya last night. Fortunately some kind lady took me to the warmth of her bosom, and life was not so brutal after all.
That last comment was for those who don’t understand why this is the best place in the world to watch a game
I don’t understand all the “Stoke wanted it more” bollocks,a slow start by us which is hardly new away from home,and then a second half totally dominated by us which under normal refereeing conditions would have seen us clear winners.I like to think what don’t kill us will make us stronger.COYS
“Stoke wanted it more” = They were prepared to battle for it more
Hope this helps.
No help at all, smart arse
Completely agree. Don’t think there was any evidence to show Stoke ‘wanted it more’. That’s an easy go-to phrase when it looks like we’ve been vaguely out-muscled.
Not everything is due to a Spurs player screwing up. You could say we needed to play with the sort of intensity we did in the second half for the whole match – but Stoke had a say in how we perform (or are allowed to perform). They were right on top of every player in that first half; clearly losing energy in the second. If you consider that Stoke effectively paced themselves for a single half of football and got out of jail when they ran out of steam in the second with a home ref, you might think about the Spurs performance differently.
Football games are about 22 players. Sometimes credit (or blame) is due to the other 11.
Good point about pacing themselves for a single half, but it was hardly a surprise, was it?
No – not particularly. But how do you counter that? In most games against a top side you’d come unstuck – all things being even Stoke would have done. To be honest you’d look to resist and hold to your game plan if you’ve confidence you can outclass them over the course of 90 minutes. What you just can’t legislate for is that when you do start completely outclassing them, you come up against a bent ref.
The mistakes that we made were failing to defend well enough, despite it being expected. But Stoke are very, very good at being ugly. We have to learn how to deal with that better – but we’re not the first good team to come unstuck there and we won’t be the last (sadly – it would make my season to see them and Bolton relegated). But these criticisms don’t equal = we weren’t up for it.
Your opinion. Mine is that in the first half hour, we played like we didn’t ‘want it as much’.
Watched the game yesterday, and recalling some of the decisions that have gone our way so far, this season, hope it’s not our luck evening out.
Highlight for me was to see JD making that great tackle back in the last few minutes by our box. Maybe there is more to his game than meets the eye.