Barclays Premiership - Match 23
 

Season 2006-2007

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR

2 v 3

NEWCASTLE UNITED
  Jermain Defoe 14                        
Dimitar Berbatov 54		   Paul Huntington 16
Obafemi Martins 72
Nicky Butt 73		  
     
  Date: Sunday 14th January 2007
  Venue: White Hart Lane
  Kick Off: 4:00pm
  Australian Live TV: Foxsports 2
  Attendance: 35,942
  Referee: S Bennett (Kent)
  Read the match preview  
   

Tottenham: Robinson, Chimbonda, Lee, Dawson, Davenport (Ghaly 88), Lennon, Huddlestone, Tainio (Zokora 79), Malbranque (Keane 75), Defoe, Berbatov

Subs Not Used: Cerny, Gardner
  Booked: Chimbonda
   

Newcastle: Given, Ramage, Taylor, Huntington, Pattison, Solano, Butt, Milner, Dyer, Martins, Sibierski.

Subs Not Used: Harper, Edgar, O'Brien, Carroll, Troisi
  Booked: Ramage, Solano, Butt, Huntington
     
  Newcastle manager Glenn Roeder said:
"The young players were absolutely tremendous and I'm very proud of my team. The dressing room is a great place to be at the moment.  Spurs don't lose too often here and the manner in which we achieved it means we leave here with great spirits. I'm impressed by the way the lads have got on with things and pulled off a result like this, despite our problems."		  
     
  Match Report:  
  A 20 yard cracker from Obafemi Martins and one each from the unlikely goalscoring source of Paul Hungtington and Nicky Butt, gave us maximum points in a dramatic game down in the capital. Twice we were behind, 1-0 and 2-1, but both times the battling young Newcastle United team didn’t give up and fought back against a very attacking Spurs side.

We looked to have done the hard work and weathered the first 15 minutes of Spurs attacks, with some great saves from ‘Mr Reliable’ Shay Given, but a ball up field saw possession easily given away by Martins (this is sometime he must learn to stop doing as it really is important, especially away from home) and Spurs counter attacked. Steed Malbranque was played through down the left, as the defence were caught trying to play the offside trap, and as he sped into the box he clipped the ball in for Defoe to convert from close range.

Two minutes later with our first real attack of the game we equalised. James Milner curled over a free-kick and after Huntington's first header was blocked by Sibierski, he lashed in the rebound through the legs of Paul Robinson for his first senior goal. What is it with right footed 19 year old left backs these days!
 		  
 

Chimbonda slaps Nicky Butt
 
1-1 at half time but that wasn’t the end of the action. Given was furious with Dimitar Berbatov who raised his leg when he was trying to take a goal kick for the 2nd time in the half and then Pascal Chimbonda and Nicky Butt were involved in a scuffle in the centre-circle. Both players were booked but the replay showed Chimbonda appeared to slap Butt in the face, meaning he was very lucky to escape with only a yellow card. Butt had been a doubt after suffering from flu all week but again turned it a fantastic performance and is now an essential part of Roeder’s team. It just shows you how fast things can turn around in football.

Spurs started the second half much like they did the first and nine minutes in Chimbonda made a superb run down the right to meet Malbranque's clever pass and after Teemu Tainio's shot was blocked superbly by Nobby Solano, Berbatov volleyed into the floor and into the net.
 
  Spurs continued to dominate the game but seemed to be very complement and didn’t kill off the game like they should have done.  
 

Two Toon goals in 94 seconds turned the local’s faces from smiles to tears. Firstly Martins, who had a quiet game up till then, played a one-two and from 20 yards let fly with the most outrageous left-foot thunderbolt that screamed into the top corner. Then from a throw in, Martins played a quality through ball for Butt to run onto and he superbly slotted the ball into the far corner past Paul Robinson. Spark wild celebrations in the away end, to quote Dave ‘I acted like I was 18 again’ and given the fact that his seat was at the end of the row right next to the Spurs fans, I bet that didn’t go down too well with the cockney muppets!!

Despite Defoe rattling the left hand post of Given’s goal, we held on for all three points. This has given us a massive boost up the league table to 11th place. We are now three points off 7th and with two home games coming up against West Ham and Aston Villa things could be looking up. However kids, this is Newcastle United so don’t except the obvious as we’ve already experienced in all 3 games this year.
 
Dyer congratulates Martins after his screamer
 
  As I mentioned in my match preview I choice to tape this match on IQ and then watch it at 6am before going back to work for the first time. As it happens I woke up at 5:30am needing a piss, so I decided to switch off the alarm and get changed into my Toon top and a pair of shorts in the dark, so as not to wake the missus. (I’m nice like that you see) Firstly I was feeling nervous as my Foxtel IQ box had been playing up all weekend and wasn’t always recording correctly. Thankfully the full reboot the night before seemed to have worked, as the match was happily taped. Making sure my phone was switched off, cos Dave always txt’s me something about the match even if I tell him not too, I settled down to watch the game. It moments like this when it really makes me smile about supporting the Toon in Australia, a daft o’clock kick off starting in the dark and as the game progresses the sun rises over the Melbourne city skyline. Class. Anyway when the Huntington and Martins goals went in, I did well not to shout aloud but after the Butt goal I jumped off the sofa and let out a big shout. (Not sure if it woke the misuses up but it won’t be the first time) At the end of the game I noticed that in my haste to put my shorts on the dark, I’d put them on back to front. I get very superstitious when it comes to watching Newcastle United play, so could this be our new lucky omen?  
     
 

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