After the worst start in the history of the club Tottenham Hotspurs sacked Juande Ramos and replaced him with Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp, who managed to halt the slide at least then. Spurs had to compensate both Ramos and the Fratton Park outfit just a year after having to compensate sacked manager Martin Jol and Ramos' employers, Sevilla. Meanwhile, Paul Ince, then the only black manager in the Premiership, brought his under-performing Blackburn Rovers side, which had failed to win in seven league matches, to White Hart Lane, but the lack of results ultimately cost him his job and saw Sam Allardyce return to management after his disastrous spell at Newcastle last season.

Goalkeeper Paul Robinson moved to Ewood Park in the summer and this was the first time that he returned to White Hart Lane since leaving. He was given a rousing reception by Spurs fans, but the first test was faced by his replacement Heurelho Gomes, who had left PSV Eindhoven for the Premiership in the summer after a successful spell in the Eredivisie. He easily gathered Benni McCarthy's cross ahead of Paraguayan marksman Roque Santa-Cruz, which earned a huge cheer from the Tottenham faithful. After six minutes Gomes fumbled a corner to present a chance to Santa-Cruz that was almost converted. Morten Gamst Pedersen tried a decidedly optimistic long range shot two minutes later, which was gathered easily by the tall Brasilian shot-stopper.

A minute later Aaron Lennon left Martin Olsson trailing in his wake, after being gifted possession by a mistake by Ryan Nelson, before cutting into the area and pulling it back for the former Spartak Moscow striker Roman Pavluychenko to open the scoring with a neat finish that gave Robinson no chance. For almost the next fifteen minutes chances were at a premium largely due to fine defending especially by Vedrun Ćorluka and Jonathan Woodgate, although Pavluychenko almost doubled the lead as his header from David Bentley's cross struck the post with Robinson beaten.

Impressive as Spurs' defence had been in the first quarter of the match, they were powerless to prevent a good chance falling to McCarthy in the penalty area from Olsson's inviting pass, although the South African international, who was having a hard time convincing Ince of his abilities, made life even more difficult for himself by volleying Blackburn's best chance over the bar after twenty-three minutes. A minute later a dreadful tackle by Olsson left Lennon in a heap, but the defender failed to learn his lesson and blatantly blocked the Tottenham winger to give referee Howard Webb no choice but to book him.

Bentley's summer move to Spurs from Blackburn has not yielded the expected return and his shot with just under half an hour played summed up his Tottenham career up to that point. It was a disappointing and weak effort that posed no problems for Robinson, who took the good-natured ribbing of every back pass well. Meanwhile, Ince looked distinctly unimpressed as McCarthy failed to connect with an inviting free-kick by Brett Emerton that should have seen him equalise. A fine run by Lennon to the edge of the area resulted in a shot that went just wide before McCarthy squandered another opportunity to endear himself to his boss by failing to control Santa-Cruz' pass with Emerton free in the area. Blackburn was far from out of the match, but a difficult task became considerably harder when Lennon earned his team an advantage as the hapless Olsson was deservedly sent off for yet another poor tackle on Lennon, who had given him a torrid time. Ince did not even spare the departing defender a word as he passed by on his way down the tunnel and Lennon almost took advantage of the man advantage immediately, but his powerful shot was superbly saved by Robinson. There was still time for Robinson to deny Spurs one more time with a fantastic save while going the wrong way to a shot deflected off Nelson. Clearly, Ince had work to do at half time to relieve the pressure on his job.

by Satish Sekar © Satish Sekar (January 6th 2009)