The only consolation for Tottenham is that an injury list that has left them with only two fit centre-backs did not grow any longer. But as a warm-up for Tuesday's daunting journey to the Bernabeu, this did not have a lot to recommend it. "The Real Madrid scout will be scared stiff," Harry Redknapp said. But if the Tottenham manager was able to appear relaxed enough to introduce a little ironic humour to his post-match summing-up, he was also frank enough to admit that a repeat of yesterday's performance would not do for a Champions' League quarter-final.
Tottenham enjoyed good spells of promising possession, but the Wigan goalkeeper Ali Al Habsi was tested only once. By contrast, the home side, who remain bottom of the Premier League table, posed serious questions of Heurelho Gomes three or four times in the second half and there was little arguing with Roberto Martinez when the Wigan manager claimed that only the Spurs goalkeeper denied his team victory.
"We know we will have to be better than that," Redknapp said. "You have to give creditto Wigan, who did a good job, but we didn't create enough in the final third, we did not pass the ball well and we weren't clever enough in the box to create chances."
Redknapp declined to make an excuse of the effect of the international break on his preparations, which was probably wise given that Wigan had been without 12 of their squad for the last two weeks for the same reason and did not appear to suffer for it. The problem perhaps is that a squad that has worked so hard to mount such an impressive campaign in Europe while simultaneously trying to reach the top four for a second year in a row is beginning to run out of steam.
Tottenham do not expect to have William Gallas back for Madrid, which means Michael Dawson and Sébastien Bassong will be retained as the central defensive pairing. But Redknapp said that Gareth Bale, who did not travel yesterday, will be back and will start along with Aaron Lennon, whose introduction in the second half here, along with Peter Crouch, sparked Tottenham's best spell. "I think to have the pace of Bale and Lennon will be essential," Redknapp said.
Rafael van der Vaart and Luka Modric offered glimpses of creative energy but no more and, Gomes apart, Tottenham's best performances came from Sandro and Jermaine Jenas in the defensive area of midfield. For Wigan the young trio of James McCarthy, Ben Watson and Tom Cleverley all gave performances of bright promise.
Cleverley drew the save of the match from Gomes early in the second half, moving in from the left to deliver a curling, right-foot shot that would have ended up in the far corner.
Gomes had already made a good reflex stop from Charles N'Zogbia at his near post and remained alert enough to deny Conor Sammon, the Wigan substitute, near the end.
"I have seen the replay and the save from Cleverley was world class," Martinez said, "and he was clever too with the save from Conor. He read it really well."
Yet for all their brightness – and they certainly did not look like a Championship side – the prospects for Wigan are not good, with only two games left at home.
Attendance: 18,578
Referee: Andre Marriner
Man of the match: Gomes
Match rating: 7/10
Source : The Independent 3 April 2011
No comments:
Post a Comment