Tottenham Hotspur 1 - West Bromwich Albion 1

Summary:

You'd have to be a brave manager to drop one man who's probably been your most consistent player of the season, and another who's been Man of the Match for several games lately - even with two more games coming up within the following seven days - but that's just what Keith Downing did for Albion's trip to White Hart Lane. Gareth McAuley was benched and Billy Jones left out altogether in a switch to a five man defence that gave Craig Dawson his first Premiership start of the season in the middle alongside Diego Lugano and Jonas Olsson. Shane Long was also missing completely as Matej Vydra started alone up front with Zoltan Gera in the hole behind him.

The result was that Albion earned a creditable draw to take the shine off Tim Sherwood's promotion to permanent manager from caretaker and arguably should have taken all three points in spite of the home side opening the scoring in the first half when Christian Eriksen blasted home a free kick after a questionable foul by James Morrison. Olsson levelled the scores two minutes later after he chipped Hugo Lloris following a free kick by Morgan Amalfitano.

Downing used all three substitutions in the second half and Albion weather a bit of a late storm from Spurs but held out for a useful point, which lifts them up to fifteenth place in a closely packed bottom half of the table.

Paul Gainham:

I thought I was crazy, my wife thought I was crazy, my son thought I was crazy, my friend thought I was crazy. And yet we still gave up our boxing day to drive down to White Hart Lane with Little hope and low expectation. When I heard the team selection before the game I thought I was truly certifiable, alongside Downing. No Jones, no Long, no Mulumbu, no McCauley at the home of a team with a new manager and everything to prove. Head held in hands, I feared the worst.

Fast forward to 5pm and I stood looking back at the best game of football we had played since ManU away / Arsenal at home. My overriding emotion was one of pride restored. For once in the last 2 months we had approached a game with BOTH the right attitude AND the right formation / game plan. Hats off to Downing for that, he took a huge risk and yet this game was everything the Hull performance was not whilst on paper we looked weak in key areas. Key to the success?

• We showed passion
• We showed hunger
• We showed team spirit
• We showed organisation
• We had the desire to win

Gone was the nonsense of sit back, wait and see. Whilst we came under the inevitable pressure you do against teams like Tottenham, we had a well thought through game plan which centred on stopping Rose and Walker getting forward to any great effect (kudos to Reid AND Ridgewell for that). That often forced Tottenham in-field where they had Morrison, Amalfitano and Yacob to contend with as well as Lugano, Dawson and Olsson as a back 3. That meant many of Tottenham?s efforts were broken down before getting serious which then allowed us to unleash some slick, pacey passing football conjured by the 3 magicians of Gera, Morrison and Vydra who cut the Spurs defence apart at times.

I have to say, Morrison had his best game in an Albion shirt for probably 12 months, Gera showed how much we really missed him and Vydra despite missing a couple of chances caused the Spurs defence problems all game.

How refreshing to see us forcing their defence into numerous errors and misplaced passes simply because we pressed on them and were hungry.

I have said before this squad IS capable of staying up with the right leadership and today re-enforced that view.

The back 3 of Olsson, Dawson and Lugano worked really well. Have to say both Dawson and Lugano worry me in a back 4 but maybe, just maybe in a back 5 it suits them ? there is more cover and that gives them maybe more confidence. Dawson was excellent against Adebayor who rarely troubled us. Olsson and Lugano took care of Soldado who did very little.

So in the end it was worth it, I avoided Boxing Day Shopping and witnessed a performance that I pray is the basis for continued hope as we head into a crucial period in our club?s recent history.

Player Marks

• Foster 8 Some good saves, exudes confidence as well which I think rubs off on those around him
• Reid 8 Probably his best game for us for some time.
• Ridgewell 8 Definitely His best game for us, absolutely stopped Walker?s run?s and nullified that threat
• Dawson 8 Great performance, shackled Adebayor really well
• Lugano 7 Steady if unspectacular, did the basics well
• Olsson 8 Marshalled the back line really well
• Yacob 7 Broke up a lot of the Spurs play, distribution poor at times
• Morrison 9 Excellent, great inter-play between him, Gera and Vydra ? I hope this is the start of a return to form from him
• Gera 10 Brilliant. Linked up really well with Vydra and Morrison, absolutely worked his socks off. Boy have we missed him when he plays like this
• Vydra 8 Deserves a 9 but gave him 8 because he missed two sitters. Caused the Spurs defence problems all game and worked tirelessly for the team
• Amalfitano 7 Much, much better. End product lacked at times but was much more involved.

Subs

• Berahino 6 Replaced Vydra. Again not at his best when coming off the subs bench
• Sessegnon 6 Replaced Gera, did not have a great deal of time to do much
• Mulumbu 6 Replaced Amalfitano. Shored things up in the last 10 mins.

Coach 9 Took a huge risk but it paid off really well. We looked a like a team with a mission. Thank you Keith Downing.

Referee 4 Fussy and many poor decisions, particularly the free kick from which they scored.

WBAlex:

A bit surprised by the formation with no Jones, McCauley, Mulumbu, Sessignon, playing a back 5, but it kind of worked. Man of the Match for WBA was in my book Zoltan Gera. Got through alot of work as you'd expect, but he has that vision and creativity to play in the area behind the striker, and slot through those passes which set up chances. You get the best from Gera when he plays in that position.

I was pleased to see Vydra up front. Even though he missed some decent chances to score,and did get shoved off the ball several times,he's got the mobility and pace to keep defenders guessing, and is able to get into dangerous positions. Olsson deserves a special mention. He got a clout in the face which was almost K.O. but got up to score the equaliser and his presence in the defence was vital in keeping the discipline at the back for the rest of the game. It's also great to see Foster back in goal (no disrespect to Myhill a fine keeper). He can pull off unbelievable saves (such was one going into the top corner from Eriksen), and over a season I reckon he could win us up to 7-8 points. Reidy did well coming in at right back. He doesn't quite get in behind defences like Jones, but he gets his tackles in. Close to getting a second yellow card, but he was definitely going for the ball rather than the man.

Spurs might have got a winner in the last part of the game, and we rode our luck on a couple of occasions with crosses which went across our goal, but none of the Spurs fans I heard later thought they deserved anything more.