F.A.Premier Reserve League - South
    Highbury, Tuesday 8th May 2001, 6pm k.o

             ARSENAL    v    SPURS
           (Red/White)      (White/Blue)
              4-4-2          4-4-2

              4(3)            0(0)

        Alex Manninger  1  Gavin Kelly
          Nelson Vivas  2  Maurizio Consorti
              Silvinho  3  Mauricio Taricco
           Ray Parlour  4  John Piercy
         Lee Canoville  5  Ian Hillier(C)
         Liam Chilvers  6  Ciaran Toner
        Alberto Mendez  7  David McEwan
        Graham Barrett  8  John Jackson
    Tomas Danilevicius  9  Steven Ferguson
       Dennis Bergkamp 10  Yannick Kamanan
          Stefan Malz  11  Matthew Etherington

         Greg Lincoln  12  James Quilter
	    (7)67Mins
        Stuart Taylor  13  Robert Burch
            Guy Demel  14  Neil Lacy
	   (4)80Mins.      (3)67Mins.
       Jo Osei-Kuffour 15  John Sutton
	  (10)75Mins.	   (10)65Mins. 
          John Spicer  16  David Galbraith

Booked - Mendez 28 -not 10yds, Parlour 30 - trip

On a sunny warm evening a crowd of around 300 (Ed - a few more in my view)came to see this game with listees Bruce and Elaine Lewis and Paul Smith. The only change from last weeks team that had a 1-0 win over the Gunners was Mauricio Taricco back from injury, while they brought in 5 first team squad players in preparation for their game on Saturday. Their extra sharpness was the telling point of this game.

Spurs lined up with Hillier and Toner at the back with Consorti at right back and Taricco on the left. Jackson and Piercy lined up in the middle with McEwan on the right and Etherington on the left.

We started well with Kamanan shooting into the side netting from a good position in the 2nd minute before they got the opener. When the ball was not cleared Bergkamp threaded the ball through for Mendez to fire home. Their second came when Kelly's bad ball out to Taricco was intercepted and the ball fell to Bergkamp with a clear run on goal. He made no mistake as he drew Kelly before putting it into the net.

Despite the pressure Arsenal put on the defence we still created chances at the other end with Kamanan's powerful header from a corner pushed over by Manninger. Kamanan, Jackson and Ferguson also had efforts just wide. As we started to get more into the game we were caught out again by a through ball from Bergkamp for Mendez to get his second. McEwan and Etherington began to make progress down the flanks despite the experience of Silvinho and Vivas.

The second half saw Arsenal ease up a little which allowed more possession for the visitors as they took the game to their hosts. After Malz broke through to lob Kelly for the forth they eased up and started to make substitutions. This allowed Spurs to go forward more often creating two headers for Hillier at the far post and a complete miss by Kamanan from 5 yds. with Ferguson also having a couple of chances. Sutton came on and did well laying the ball off and having a shot well saved. It looked good but you felt they were being allowed to do so.

Faced with some good quality players our young side was found lacking. Piercy is not a creative player and Etherington did not make much impression and some mistakes by Kelly and the defence were exploited by experienced players. Kamanan while he is getting into good positions failed to make the most of them(he could easily have had a hat trick). The only ones who came out with credit were Toner, Jackson and Ferguson. The last game of the season is next Tuesday 15th May when we face Coventry at the Lane.

Ray