ERIK’S BACK IN BUSINESS
Fit-again Lamela does trick for Spurs
MAuricio Pochettino claimed football was all about tricking your opponent as he tumbled over in defence of Dele Alli.
Danny Blanchflower said it was about ‘glory’, ‘doing things in style’ and with a ‘flourish’ and Tottenham play a crackly old recording of these evocative words from their former captain before every home game.
Sometimes, though, it all seems so much simpler than that. Football, first and foremost, is about goals. And a bit of luck. Harry Kane grabbed a late equaliser in Newport last month to save Pochettino’s team from one of the FA cup’s greatest upsets in the mud of rodney Parade.
And last night they brushed the League Two team aside on the Wembley baize without the need for Kane to get off the bench.
Tottenham feasted on good fortune to take the lead when defender Dan Butler put the ball into his own net, and Erik Lamela added the second before half-time with his first goal for 17 months.
There would have been more but for the extension of Fernando Llorente’s personal finishing crisis, but they move on to rochdale in the last 16.
Just wait until Alli and Kane find Spurs are on their way to Spotland in the fifth round. it sounds like paradise for Tottenham’s penalty twins.
Beat rochdale on their notoriously poor pitch and they will be into the last eight without having encountered a team from any higher than the lower reaches of the third tier. Win two more ties and they will be into the semi-final and back at Wembley, where they are unbeaten in a dozen games.
Sometimes things can fall into place in the knockout competitions. Tottenham will hope this is the year it does in a tournament they last won it in 1991.
Pochettino made 10 changes in the hope of keeping some firstteamers fresh to face Arsenal on Saturday.
only Son Heung-min survived from the team which drew at Liverpool on Sunday, and there were welcome returns made by three of Pochettino’s key men.
Toby Alderweireld made his first appearance since suffering a hamstring injury against real Madrid on November 1, while Danny rose and Harry Winks were in action for the first time since Boxing Day.
rose, back from a knee injury, slammed the first chance of the game into the side-netting from a cross by Moussa Sissoko.
Newport had lost both their League Two games since holding Spurs in South Wales but opened with the same confidence and energy which has defined their transformation under Michael Flynn. Spurs were hustled into mistakes in the opening phases and were bombarded by Ben Tozer’s exceptionally long throw.
Victor Wanyama was booked for a foul on Joss Labadie after being played into trouble by 20-year-old central defender Juan Foyth.
Gradually, however, Tottenham seized control, began to dominate in midfield and went ahead with a slice of fortune in the 26th minute. Llorente held up the ball on the edge of the penalty box and worked it out to the right.
Sissoko’s early cross caught out Butler. As the left back tried to adjust his feet and side-foot clear, the ball clipped the inside of his right leg and flashed past goalkeeper Joe Day at the near post.
‘Not many can say they scored at Wembley, but Dan Butler can,’ smiled manager Flynn after the match, determined to savour the occasion if not the result. But it was a cruel way to slip behind.
The goal helped Spurs relax into a better attacking flow. Day made saves to deny Lamela and Son but the goalkeeper was soon beaten again. Son found Lamela, who applied a sweet touch on the run and a tidy finish before sprinting away to celebrate his first goal since September 2016, when he was among the scorers in a League cup tie against Gillingham.
Minds flashed to Notts county’s 8-1 drubbing at the hands of Swansea in a fourth-round replay on the previous night and yet Newport, to their immense credit, regrouped and refused to buckle.
in the second half, they dug in to frustrate their illustrious hosts even when legs were weary and christian Eriksen and Alli came off the bench.
Day saved again from Lamela, Eriksen fired wide, Alli hit the bar when clean through and Llorente missed a couple of glorious openings, one a header and one a volley, both inches wide. on the break, Newport made occasional forays to bring their following of more than 7,000 to their feet and Padraig Amond, scorer in the initial tie, forced a save from Michel Vorm in the closing seconds.
‘i’m a bit disappointed we didn’t score at the end,’ said Flynn. ‘The players deserved it and the fans would have made a right noise.’
Newport, however, can take inspiration from their brush with the Premier League as they return to the toil of League Two and a fixture against Forest Green rovers on Saturday.
Tottenham move on to Arsenal and Juventus. Then rochdale.