Spurs show no mercy to underdog
Eighth-tier Marine keeps Tottenham scoreless for 24 minutes, but still loses
CROSBY, ENGLAND — Marine’s part-time players had been holding off Tottenham for 20 minutes when apprentice plumber Neil Kengni spotted his chance.
Some 30 yards from the goal of Joe Hart, who has played at a World Cup for England, Kengni unleashed a shot.
Surely the semiprofessional eighth-tier club could not take the lead against the Premier League’s fourth-place team? Only the crossbar spared the blushes and Tottenham of Hart, who tipped the ball over to be sure.
But incredibly, Tottenham still took 24 minutes to beat goalkeeper Bayleigh Passant in the biggest mismatch in FA Cup history as Carlos Vinicius broke the unexpectedly long deadlock on Sunday.
“For an eighth-tier team to see out Tottenham for 24 minutes is something special but we felt there we could have kept them out for a little bit longer,” Passant told The Associated Press. “It was just a lack of concentration.”
It didn’t always look like 161 places separated these sides in the English football pyramid as Marine defended valiantly against the 2019 Champions League runners-up.
Tottenham went on to win 5-0 — with Vinícius scoring a hat trick — but that is only the same goal margin the London club beat Manchester United by earlier in the Premier League season.
“We showed fight and determination that we didn’t want to make a laughing stock out of ourselves,” said Passant, who also works in a supermarket. “People around the world and in Crosby can be happy with us that even though we got beaten 5-0 we tried our best.”
This was the ultimate culture shock for the millionaires of Tottenham. They changed in a wedding venue that’s part of Marine Travel Arena. Unlike Tottenham’s new $1.5 billion stadium, this is a sparse venue crammed between two streets of red-brick terraced houses with one small stand. Due to the pandemic, the only supporters able to watch in person were in the gardens of Rossett Road separated from the narrow touchline by a low, brick wall.
Afew supporters stood on the wall and peered through the fence struck over manager Jose Mourinho and the Tottenham bench. Others climbed trees to gain any vantage point and blasted horns. The best view of the Tottenham players was in the streets of this Liverpool commuter town as fans lined the roads — despite the country being in a coronavirus lockdown — to see the team bus arrive.
Even without a crowd being allowed in, enterprising Marine sold more than 30,000 virtual tickets for 10 pounds each ($17.24) — ensuring the windfall from the cup run, including prize money and television cash, exceeds half a million pounds ($862,000).
“At a tough time when there are many non-league clubs struggling financially ... this is really nice,” Marine manager Neil Young said.