“OHHHH WHAT A GOALLLLLL!!!” – Danny Rose

Reflections On Spurs’ FA Cup Semi-Final Loss

Yes, the referee was an incompetent moron – on several occasions, but most of all when disallowing a perfectly good goal by Peter Crouch. Yes, the pitch was a complete disgrace, by any standard, but especially for a showpiece FA Cup semi-final – and it cost us Pompey’s first goal, Michael Dawson’s slip that left Piquionne unmarked attributable entirely to the unstable Wembley surface. But when I really think about it, Tottenham’s 2-0 semi-final loss to already relegated Portsmouth was primarily our own fault. The fact is, we had the possession and the opportunities, not to mention the players, to have comfortably won in normal time. And in truth, yesterday’s loss was a simple repeat of a weakness we’ve had all year, on which has already cost us dearly. We find it very difficult, when we don’t score early, to break down poorer quality but tenacious and defensively minded teams, that are set up so as to pack the midfield and crowd out our attacking players. On two occasions this year we have lost 1-0 to Wolves, both games that we should have won comfortably on the night. We lost 1-0 at home against Stoke, to a late goal, having dominated  the entire match. We drew 0-0 at home against Hull having, again, controlled the whole game. There have been other occasions too (twice against Aston Villa) when against a defensive team we’ve failed to translate possession into goals, or take the chances we have created.

So, while a complete shock in one sense, in another sense this semi-final loss was not surprising at all. It was Tottenham doing what they’ve done, on occasion, throughout the whole season. The points we’ve lost in games we should undoubtedly have won this year may still cost us fourth place (that will largely depend on how we do in our next few games against Arsenal, Chelsea and Man. Utd), but that same weakness has now cost us a place in our first FA Cup final since 1991. If we’re really going to make the transition to become one of England’s elite clubs, we will need more cutting edge.