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.
Is anyone panicking? I’m not no siree just taking it one game at a time.
More shots on target
68% possesion
Shwacross is a thug
Worse of all was stoke’s siging. Der der der der (insert player name) isn’t a song. Please raise your game.
Here’s a different angle on yesterday. It proved to me how we should keep thanking whatever gods there might be that we’re no longer cursed with LSOP up front. You saw yesterday how perfectly he fits into an anti-football team – and it reminded me of what we were too often at times with him up front for us.
But for Stoke, who have no intention of playing football, he was worth the 10 million quid.
As a football aesthete, I’m glad as hell to have lost that gangly, unattractive, gormless and untalented bell-end. Give me footballers, any day of the week.
I’ll drink to that…. :daumen:
I think with a comment like that, it must be my round.
Am I the only person who sees a distinct resemblance bewtween the Stoke stye, and rugby union kicing the ball into tpuch so that they can play have a chance in the “line-outs”. People ask me why I don’t enjoy rugby, and that is the reason. Next time someone asks me why I don’t enjoy rugby, I will tell therm that it reminds me too much of Stoke City.
talking of rugby, the sending of of the welsh captain in the semi against france was for a less offensive tackle than the one one kaboul, and that is rugby, where you are supposed to tackle by grabbing them
Absolutely correct, they were playing for throw-ins!
Hear, hear!
Two Metre Peter was unplayable yesterday.
Stoke we not “up for it ” . They are a bunch of cheating barstewards. I said this on my pre-match post. What we needed was competent referees and linemen. We got the contrary. Foy and his team will now be suspended but we still lose 3 points. We won last year at Stoke with a dodgy handball of the line from Crouch and we benefitted from Cahill’s red card lat week. Still waiting for payback on Mendes goal at OT.
We have to move and forget about Stoke. Sunderland must be put to the sword and I hope Kabouls redcard is overturned. Ps Defoe running back to own area showed how much he fights for the cause.
well we can all say that to err is human etc. but this guy made one bad decision after another and they all went against spurs. from not seeing who kicked it out for a corner to the bad tackle on parker but as woodgate had just been booked he waved it on for advantage, which as the commentator pointed out, did not exist. the foul by ade that no one could see other than this guy with his special clown spectacles; he used the same spectacles when he called a foul on bale in the first half that was under his nose and where it was all ball and not contact with the other player whatsoever. i understand what harry means with the comment that he was enjoying not giving us anything. he was strutting around arrogantly waving away spurs players as if we were just a bunch of whiners trying it on and he would not fall for it, but that terribly unkind thing called the tv showed he was wrong over and over again. he was too arrogant and too determined to show he was the boss. he could not wait to send of kaboul because he had dared to mock the ref. and the truth is that he did not just have a reaaly bad day, he had a really bad day against spurs, and that is when it becomes troubling. had this been a game in italy in the 60’s everyone would have assumed a gold watch had been left in the changing room. this guy either had had his wife kidnapped by a chinese gambling syndicate or he just had a bug up his arse about spurs. i agree that over a season you get some decisions and you lose some. we had a season’s worth in one game and he will still strut around. it reminded me of one of those really poor b movies set in some southern town in the US where the local redneck police chief picks on someone, maybe a visiting yankee, and terrorises them, defies themn to challenge him because if the visitor does, then he will bust up his car, and if he complains more he will throw him in the clink, and if he still complains he will terrorise his wife and kids. trouble is we dont have anyone to arrive who is senior to this shit because the fa certainly wont do anything. i recall years that when clive thomas gave a penalty in the semi final in 1981 (replays showed that hoddle was not withing three feet of kenny hibbitt) for 2 or 3 years thereafter every poor decision at the lane was met witha rousing “are you thomas in disguise”. maybe time to dust that one off for foy, especially if on tv and the sound equipment will let his nearest and dearest hear it. rant over, dont feel a lot better for it, had hoped i might.
8O
Agree, we shouldn’t just forget this and move on, Foy should be severely barracked at every future Spurs game he referees from the first whistle until the last.
He’ll probably get the same next time he officiates at second hand fridge as he was also in charge of the controversial QPR – Cheatski game as well. I laughed all night after watching that game but Cheatski with 2 players sent off and an extremely soft penalty against them were hard done by, can’t believe i’m admitting that – but they were…..I think a career change is on the cards for Mr Foy from Liverpool…
Liverpool you say?, how very revealing!
St Helens to be precise but it’s near enough…..
One piece of good news, at 49 Chris Hoy is in his final season as a premiership ‘cough’ referee….Thank F*ck for that!
I think hes a Everton supporter. And a bastard. :whistle:
You’re the closest Hartley, you have a mission..Can’t leave it Davspurs, he’ll only get off his head and balls it up,, but you know what’s required and we’ll all chip in and send you all the baccy you’ll need for the next few years
Sorry my friend, but I only venture into the dark side that is Lancashire when I am trying to get back something which has been stolen from me or of course away games…saying that he (Foy) has stolen something from me so I guess that would count….on my way, wish me luck.. :ninja:
Old Holborn or GV?
Marlboro gold these days…..same taste, half the fat.. :daumen:
Take it on the chin and stop whining like a gooner pussy
I see you’re still upset with my last reply. :-p :-p
@TMWNN you caught me red handed,I must say I normally enjoy reading your stubborn arseholeiness
Was pleased to see that Bassong came on and played with confidence and helped right the ship in the 2nd half. Good tactical move by Harry to go with a nominal 3-5-2 as it allowed for Walker to cover for Rafa’s defensive frailties on the right side. We received a dodgy penalty but should have had two others and our 2nd goal was incorrectly disallowed. With a better referee we would have won that game in the 2nd half.
Well said. Bassong’s come in for a lot of criticism on this blog recently (a lot of it from me it has to be said), but he really helped steady the ship in the second half and completely nullified their long-throw tactics.
Also on this blog Harry’s half-time substitutions were not met with universal acclaim at the time, but his tactics were proved to be spot on as we looked a lot more potent a threat going three at the back. My only criticism of the subs is that Sandro should have come on instead of Defoe to give us a midfield three of Sandro, Parker and Modric. Then, if VDV still continued to under-perform, Defoe could have replaced him later. The encouraging thing for me is that yesterday we showed that playing three at the back with Walker and Bale operating as wing-backs is very much a viable option for us in future and one that I would be keen to see us start with on occasion.
As has been pointed out elsewhere, many a team will come a cropper at Stoke and if they can restrict Arsenal and Man City later this year to draws at best I won’t shed too many tears over yesterday’s result.
Sandro must be less than 100% as the game really was calling for him. I hope Harry had a go at the defenders at half time leading to Bassong coming on. There was an arrogant attitude among them as no one was willing to do the dirty work. Benny’s back heel move gone awry earned him a seat on the bench for the 2nd half and bigger bodies were needed to counter the anti-football.