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Two own goals and two more from man of the moment - Roman Pavlyuchenko -
against a Bolton Wanderers side barely willing to take part in the tie,
gave Tottenham a ticket through to the FA Cup quarter-final where they
will meet Fulham. With a team much
changed from their league line-up, Bolton took to the field and only
threatened Tottenham a few times in the whole match, while Spurs had a
lot of the bal and a lot of chances, two of which they converted and two
of which the away team stuck away for us. Spurs themselves made
changes with Pavlyuchenko coming in for Crouch and Assou-Ekotto playing
right-back in place of Corluka, who was hit by a virus, along with
several other squad members.
The way Tottenham were playing was always
likely to open up the Bolton defence, even though they played something
resembling a 4-5-1 formation. Moving the ball quickly on the
flanks, Tottenham looked to get the ball into the area quickly,
normally, low in to the near post. A couple of balls in from Bale
and Bentley brought sliding interventions from defenders, as they were
panicked into risky clearances. It was Sebastien Bassong who had
the first shot of the night, with a rasping 30 yard drive dipping over
the bar just too late.
Bolton had a half-chance in the 13th
minute, when Cohen's cross caught Spurs defenders loose marking and
Taylor stole in to hit a shot that Gomes had to make a routine save in
pushing the ball round the foot of his left hand post. Another new
corner routine saw Bentley pull the ball back to the edge of the area,
where Huddlestone took the ball and fired in one of Tom's specials, but
it hit a defender and spun out right to Palacios, who hit it first time
on the volley, but the ball flashed a few yards wide of Jaaskelainen's
goal.
However, when Spurs had the ball at the
back, they looked too comfortable and tended to over-play, with the ball
given away by Bale and Palacios too cheaply. They lead to Bolton
having snap shots from outside the box and Klasnic going closest, when
the Croatian thumped a 25 yarder just wide of Gomes' goal in the 20th
minute of the tie. Then a cross from the American midfielder
Holden found Gardner winning a header in the box, but he should have
done better than get a glancing contact on it that took it wide.
The miss proved costly, as in the 23rd
minute, Tottenham opened the scoring. With Luka Modric having the
luxury of playing on a smooth surface, he skipped into the last third of
the pitch and slid a pass into Pav on the edge of the area. Taking
the ball and turning past Zat Knight, who had a nightmare evening, it
looked as though the ball might get stuck under the Russian striker's
feet, but he dug the ball out and knocked it past the advancing
Jaaskelainen's dive to hit the back of the net from around the penalty
spot.
The goal did not stop Spurs turning the
ball over to the Trotters without pressure being applied. Modric
was the next culprit and Gardner took advantage to strike a shot that
went across Heurelho Gomes' goal and pissed by a narrow margin.
However, when Tottenham did attack, it was Modric who was doing the
prompting and his pass through to Defoe saw him out-manoeuvre Andy
O'Brien and hit s shot to the keeper's left that was at a good height
for him to make a dive for the cameras and push aside for a corner just
before the half hour.
Michael Dawson and Bassong were winning
most things in the air, despite the Bolton forwards failing to jump for
the ball and make backs for the Spurs men to come over the top.
Referee Walton was not in the mood to give very much tonight, while the
linesman was showing his hair-trigger on off-sides, with some being
given when the bal arrived rather than when it was played. Well
,that was when he was up with play, unlike the one in the second half
when Pavlyuchenko must have been at least two yards off, but the
linesman on the opposite side of the pitch was 10 yards behind play.
All the defenders were getting their blocks and tackles in, but were
still a little loose in their initial marking.
Not that it mattered when the other side
were so keen to help Spurs out in the goal-scoring department. 35
minutes on the clock and Bentley pulls another corner back to
Huddlestone and instead of shooting, he played the ball back wide to the
right, where Wilson Palacios was waiting. His early low cross into
the middle of the goal-mouth was tempting for Jermain Defoe, but he
couldn't get to the ball, as Jaaskelainen had managed to stick out a
foot and he knocked the ball under himself and into the net for 2-0 to
Spurs.
Bolton got back into the Tottenham half
and Muamba bundled his way through the area, but Klasnic's shot was
saved by Gomes and then Holden set the striker up for another chance,
but it only just made it off the pitch for a goal-kick rather than a
throw-in.
At the interval, some of the Spurs Ladies
players made an appearance on the sidelines, as they had a Cup
semi-final with Arsenal the next day and Pat Jennings made a draw for
someone to play on the pitch as part of a charity game at the end of the
season. On the pitch, Eidur Gudjohnsen was warming up with the
fitness coach and it seemed likely that he would come on and he did to
replace Jermain Defoe. During the second half, he looked a little
more involved than in his previous games and 'scored' a goal that was
chalked off for a dodgy off-side decision.
But within a couple of minutes of the
start of the second half, he had taken part in the build-up for the
third Tottenham goal. Coming deep to get the ball, Eidur played a
good pass to free Gareth Bale on the left and his heavy, low cross to
the near post saw Andy O'Brien slide in to try and cut it out, but he
only managed to slide it into the net with the goalie stranded.
Five minutes later, David Bentley had a
chance to put the game completely out of reach with Luka Modric's cross
dropped when going through Jaaskelainen's greasy gloves ns dropping
kindly for the Spurs winger at the far post. However, he totally
missed the volley and the chance was gone. Ten minutes in, Pav had
a shot that the keeper couldn't grasp, but he was fortunate that no
Spurs player was around to benefit.
A double change by Owen Coyle sparked a
revival for the away team, even though there was some confusion over who
was going off in the first place. However, it would have helped if
the players had been anyone other than Johan Elmander and Mustafa Riga,
as they produced less of a cutting edge than the manager might have been
hoping for. Around the hour mark, Riga had a couple of shots, with
one going wide across Gomes and the other straight at the Tottenham
goalie. A third effort should have been lucky, but after good work from
Elmander and Holden, the Dutchman put the ball over from about 10 yards
out. In the 67th minute, Riga came the closest to a Bolton goal,
with a header from Holden's free-kick forcing Gomes into a sharp reflex
save down to his right to keep the ball out.
Straight away the game moved to the other
end, with Bale powering away up the left wing and his low ball in to the
near post saw Gudjohnsen get on the end of it to nudge a shot at goal
that Jaaskeleainen blocked with his feet at the expense of a corner..
Spurs brought on Danny Rose for Bentley,
who had done well, but his positioning on the right wing made it hard
for him, as he tried to cut in and shoot with his left, with two efforts
finding a defender in the way. Bolton created an effort for Holden
to shoot, but once more Dawson lead by example by chucking himself in
the way to stop the ball reaching the goal. With time running out,
Rose went running down the right wing. As it looked like he might
cut in to have another shot, this time he played a low pass into the
box, which might have been meant for Huddlestone, who was breaking
forward, but it found Pavlyuchenko around 12 yards out. He took a
touch and as he shaped to shoot, Zat Knight flashed across his
sight-line, as he slid in, but Roman had calmly got the bal onto his
good foot and slapped the ball home with the keeper exposed. It
was a cool piece of finishing and his joy was uncontained.
Obviously, he wants to play and is now showing Harry why he should be
part of the starting eleven.
It was coming to the end of the match and
even into added time both sides had chances. Elmander fired wildly
over, as he tended to do in the first match, while at the other end,
Kranjcar pulled out a more measured effort that curled only just wide,
but the final whistle brought a 4-0 win for Spurs and a passage through
to the Sixth Round.
A reasonably straightforward win brought
back memories of when we beat Bolton in this cup in 2002, when there was
an own goal too, but only one that time. The visitors have more
pressing things to worry about and so do Spurs with a visit from Everton
on Sunday. Hopefully, they will be able to play with as much
imagination, but they will need to sharpen up their passing and will be
aware that the Toffees will put up a fair bit more resistance than the
Trotters.
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