Hull City completed a memorable week by beating Tottenham Hotspur 1-0 at White Hart Lane.
Brazilian winger Geovanni was the hero once again, rifling a superb free-kick from all of 35 yards straight into the top corner. Tottenham carved out enough chances to win the game, with the best falling to Jonathon Woodgate, but he could only find the woodwork, while Spurs' three strikers all misfired again.
At the other end, Hull almost benefited from more awful defending, with Dean Marney striking a post and Marlon King missing a one-on-one with Heurelho Gomes.
Juande Ramos' side remain rooted to the bottom of the table, while Phil Brown and his Hull side can look at the table from the dizzy heights of third position.
If there was a nervous atmosphere around the capacity crowd at White Hart Lane after the team's poor start to the season, it did not seem to Aaron Lennon, who tore into Hull right from the kick-off, and won the home side a corner, from which Gareth Bale had a snap-shot cleared off the line.
It wasn't long before alarm bells were ringing in the Spurs defence though, as a flick-on from Daniel Cousin fell to Geovanni, only for the Brazilian to blaze over with only his compatriot Gomes to beat.
The frenetic pace and shambolic defending from both sides continued, and Roman Pavlyuchenko was the next to have the goal open up in front of him, though he saw his shot saved by Boaz Myhill after a cross from Lennon had caused a scramble in the Hull area.
There seemed to be little concern around the home fans when Vedran Corluka went straight into the back of King to concede a free-kick, such was the distance from goal, but those who remembered Geovanni's wonder strike against Arsenal had due cause to worry. The Brazilian stepped up and rifled the ball straight into the top corner with Gomes rooted firmly to the spot.
The pace and trickery of the elusive Lennon kept the home fans hope of a quick equaliser alive, though their sieve-live defence ensured Hull looked just as likely to grab a second goal - never more so than when a sharp turn on the edge of the area from Marney somehow saw him with time to pick out the bottom corner, though he dropped to his knees with head in hands as the ball rebounded away off the inside of the post, Gomes once again beaten.
Gareth Bale then showed his own dead-ball prowess, forcing Myhill to tip a superbly-struck free-kick from long distance onto the cross bar.
Pavlyuchenko, who has earlier landed heavily on his right knee, was replaced by Darren Bent on 35 minutes, before Spurs' best chance of the half fell to Woodgate. A superb pull-back from Lennon found the big defender unmarked 15 yards out, but his volley was deflected onto the post and away.
For a man that commanded a hefty £16 million transfer fee, Luka Modric has been decidedly anonymous so far in his short Tottenham career, though he gave a glimpse of his undoubted talent as he chipped a glorious ball over the defence for Bent to race onto, though the striker saw his delicate chip round Myhill roll agonisingly past the post.
Frazier Campbell headed wide, before David Bentley was also off-target with a vicious right foot shot, while Didier Zokora also picked out the increasingly frustrated North Stand with a long-range effort.
After a neat exchange between Lennon and Bent it finally it seemed to have opened up for Bent on the penalty spot, but he then took an unnecessary touch to bring the ball onto his favoured right-foot, allowing Paul McShane the time to get across and make the block.
For all Spurs' huffing and puffing, neither Bent nor Campbell looked like they were about to pull out the all-important equaliser, and it could have got even worse for Spurs when Marlon King raced through on goal, though Gomes saved well with his feet.
Giovani dos Santos was brought on to replace Lennon, though Spurs' creativity seemed to disappear along with the little winger, and Hull were able to make it a second memorable trip to North London for their noisy band of travelling fans in the space of a week. |
發表於 2008-10-6 12:50 AM
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