Tottenham Hotspur 0 - West Bromwich Albion 1

Date: Sunday 21st September 2014 
Competition: Barclays Premier League
Spurs:
4.6
WBA:
7.6
Foster 7.2, Wisdom 6.4, Dawson 7.7, Lescott 8.7, Pocognoli 7.2, Dorrans 6.5, Morrison 7.3, Gardner 7.0, Brunt 6.6, Sessegnon 7.5 (Anichebe, 90 5.9), Berahino 7.3
Unused subs: Myhill, Baird, Ideye, Gamboa, Mulumbu, McAuley
Manager: Alan Irvine 7.8
Scorers: Morrison (74)
Referee: Kevin Friend (Leicestershire) 5.2
Attendance: 35,861   Home Fans 4.7   Away Fans 7.7

oshawabaggie:

Brilliant overall performance. Should have been 3 goals up by half time. A clear penalty by Adebayor was missed by the ref. Who would have thought a defense without Ollie, Mac and Mulumbu would have dominated to such an extent? Lescott was awesome. Dawson excellent. But a great all round team effort. Full marks to Irvine for the selection and tactics. I never thought I would be writing this stuff before the game. Nice to see the subs euphoric after the game too.

Virginia Baggie:

On cloud 9 right now!

First chance to watch us properly this season. Must admit with the negative publicity this week, Brunty booed and hitting the bottom of the league, I expected the worst. However Albion started well (didn't shoot themselves in the foot in the 1st 2 minutes) and finished the half with the better and more frequent chances despite much less possession. LESCOTT immediately took control at the back and even should have had a goal if DAWSON hadn't got his noggin in the way. A missed penalty call and an offside disallowed goal gave one real hope of maybe a point or better out of this tricky fixture - Tottenham obviously suffering a little from a EUROPA hangover!

Again started well in the 2nd half SESSEGNON got better and better as the game wore on and most importantly the lads desire and hustle didn't wane. FOSTER kept us in the game with some brave keeping. The more expensive subs Spurs bought on the more you felt it would be the Albion pressure that would pay off. It did when MORRISON converted an easy header from a corner in the 74th min we had a deserved lead. More heroics in defence before the final whistle, particularly from DAWSON who had his best game for us yet.

LESCOTT My MoM hope he stays fit and keeps the defence as organised. Our first win in 8 and ALAN IRVINE's first. Congratulations to him and the team. Importantly off the bottom, up to 15th and just a win away from 6th so early days... but what an important victory!

Player Marks & Comments:

  • Foster: 8 Made up for last week, still one of the best
  • Lescott: 8 Made all the differnce today
  • Pocognoli: 7 This lad can play
  • Dawson: 8 Best game as a baggie?
  • Wisdom: 7 Coped well and willing to attack
  • Sessegnon 7 Got more involved as the game wore on Subbed (Anichebe - 91' )
  • Brunt 7 Some nice stuff from our Cap at times. LET'S GIVE HIM SOME LOVE AT THE HAWTHORNS
  • Gardner: 7 Did a lot of the dirty work in midfield and threatened
  • Morrison 7 The work rate and the GOAL
  • Dorrans: 6 Sluggish and poor passes at times make you wonder if Mulumbu might be better here?
  • Berahino 7 Incredible pace but not always the right decisions - still young. Loved how he worked so hard.

IRVINE: 9 Credit where its due. This team knew their jobs today, executed well and ALL WORKED THERE BUTTS OF FOR THE TEAM! Hope we are gelling and this bodes well for the future.

CadizBaggie:

What a difference a player makes. Take a bow Mr Lescott. Last week it was all about lack of confidence and little mistakes that made big differences, while this week we were as solid as a rock. There were of course 11 players in Albion shirts and they all played extremely well, but in my humble opinion it was Lescott that made the difference and his commanding performance that kept things steady and allowed us to look good on the break.

What can I say, after last week it was all doom and gloom, however AI got things spot on and if we can keep that defensive solidity then we may just be ok. Even Dawson looked good with a wonderful clearance at the death, in fact all throughout the team it was hard to pick a bad performance and very easy to point out the good things... and that’s not been said for quite some time.

Berahino was superb, full of running and Morrison looked like his old creative self. PogNog and Wisdom were dangerous when coming forward, full of support, and managed to keep that defensive line when required. Brunt was also on his game, his best performance for some time and I can only hope that he keeps that sort of thing coming.

An all round wonderful display and while all the national reports will be about how poor Spurs were, the fact is we kept them at bay and they rarely looked like troubling us - the single shot on target is testament to that. I’d love to see us do well in the league cup but I fully understand should AI put out a second string with the next home game being so much more important. Boing Boing.