Harry: Tough point keeps us on course
‘We’ve got to make sure we win six of the last eight games’
SPURS boss Harry Redknapp saluted his side’s courageous point at Chelsea then demanded six wins from the last eight games to cement a Champions League place. Redknapp admits it had been an emotional week following Fabrice Muamba’s dice with death in the aftermath of Bolton’s visit to White Hart Lane.
While a draw at home to Stoke in midweek left Redknapp perplexed, he was in the mood yesterday to celebrate a point at Chelsea.
It was a game Spurs deserved to win but a stalemate with Chelsea kept their Champions League qualifying rivals at bay, Tottenham having a five-point advantage.
Redknapp said: “It was an important point for us and the longer it went I felt like we were getting at them. I could see us winning it really.
“I think they were probably more happy at the end to hear the whistle than we were.
“We had some good chances and their keeper made a couple of great saves.”
Spurs still haven’t won at Stamford Bridge since 1990, and Redknapp said: “I wasn’t here for around 17 of those years, but this was an excellent performance.”
Redknapp hasn’t given up on third place but fourth place would also do following their recent wobble in which they have picked up just two points from the last five matches.
“It’s not as if we’ve been playing badly – I know I keep saying it,” he added. “If we had been playing badly, I’d have been worried.
“Or if they were coming in short of confidence every morning, losing that bit of brightness, you start to worry.
“But they’ve been bright in training. They’ve trained well, they’ve played well. So I know that we’re OK. It’s a good point and it keeps us in a decent position as far as the Champions League places go.”
Redknapp warned there is still a long way to go: “It can all change. We’ve got to keep picking up results.
“We’ve got decent games, not easy games, all hard games. We’ve got to make sure we win six of the last eight.
“You’d like to think we’ve got a chance of that. They’re decent enough games that I feel we can win.”
Now Spurs will have to concentrate on an emotional reunion with Bolton in the FA Cup on Tuesday night. Referring to Fabrice Muamba, he said: “We’re all just so pleased at what has happened.
“We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves with Fabrice, but from where we were last Saturday to where we are now is just a miracle.
“When you saw that boy go up that tunnel – and I spoke to my club doctor – he was gone, he was gone.
“I think we all felt that he wasn’t going to make the night or wasn’t going to make the hospital. I spoke to Owen Coyle every day – it’s just been fantastic. When he’s out of hospital, it’ll be amazing.”
Chelsea boss Roberto Di Matteo admitted: “Finishing fourth is important for this club. It’s going to be a difficult test for us now.
“We were looking to close the gap on Spurs. Maybe we will have to win our remaining eight league games.” LEWIS HAMILTON has taken steps to avoid a repeat today of his poor start in Australia, although Jenson Button has tried to make sure he again has the upper hand.
Hamilton was let down by a poor launch at Melbourne’s Albert Park last Sunday after claiming the 20th pole position of his Formula One career.
It played its part in Hamilton finishing a disappointing third behind Mclaren team-mate Button, who claimed his 13th race win.
At the Sepang International Circuit Hamilton will again spearhead a Mclaren one-two off the line after finishing 0.149secs clear of Button in qualifying.
Hamilton said: “The preparations have been exactly the same, but the engineers have made small incremental changes to the adjustments that can be made to the launch on the formation lap.
“I’ve been in the engineers’ room today and given a bit of a squeeze to the guy who does the launches, and said, ‘Make sure the launch is good for both of us tomorrow’.”
There is often banter between Hamilton and Button, but there will again be serious intent when the five red lights disappear to signal the start of the second race of the year.
With Mclaren having a second successive qualifying one-two for the first time since 2007, Button says the situation could not be better.
“We should be very happy with the last two qualifying sessions,” said Button, “and I’m happy to be second, although of course I’d be happier to be first.
“I couldn’t beat Lewis’s lap. It was a great lap, but I feel pretty happy with being on the front row.
“The times are so close, just four-tenths (of a second) covering the top seven places, which is very unusual in F1. That’s four teams who are very strong. So it’s great to be on the front row, and hopefully that pattern is going to continue.”
This race boasts the second longest run-down to the first corner of current F1 tracks, so it promises to be a battle royal into turn one, with Michael Schumacher right behind the British duo after the seven-times champ qualified third.
Asked how hard they would race into the first corner, Button said: “We both want to get into turn one first, but this race is not just about turn one.
“It’s a very long, tough race, and it might not even be about us. It might be Michael that gets the jump on us.”
Team principal Martin Whitmarsh will allow both his drivers to race to the line if they are fighting out in the closing stages.
“It’s quite difficult to call off a fight between them,” said Whitmarsh. “We’ve not traditionally done that.
“They both very strongly want to win, and they know it is a free race, which is what people expect of us, and it’s what our drivers expect from the team.”