SPURS    V  SOUTHAMPTON
          (White/Blue)   (Black)
  	  	4-4-2    4-4-2
 
 		 2(1)   0(0)
 
 	 Gavin Kelly 1 Neil Moss
      Alton Thelwell 2 Paul Hughes
     Anthony Gardner 3 Ryan Ashford
        Simon Davies 4 Matthew Davies
        Gary Doherty 5 Garry Monk
          Luke Young 6 Francis Benali(C)
        Ciaran Toner 7 Matthew Le Tissier
 Stephen Clemence(C) 8 Kevin Gibbens
     Yannick Kamanan 9 James Beattie
     Willem Korsten 10 Adrian Caceres
Matthew Etherington 11 Mark Draper
 
 Jose Dominguez (7) 62Mins 12 Alan Blaney (2) 60Mins.
           Martin Brennan  13 Chris Baird
                Mark Gower 14 Stephen Gray
   Ian Hillier (6) 84Mins. 15 Matthew Huxley (10) 77Mins.
               John Piercy 16 Ben Madgwick
 
  Referee - M.Ives Booked - Gibbens (48) Tackle from behind.
 

It was a cool clear evening with the pitch looking in good condition. In the crowd of around 200 was Bruce Lewis, Paul and Greg Smith as well as Andy Porter.

The team lined up with Thelwell at right back and Gardner at left with Doherty and Young in the middle, a strange line-up as I would have expected Young to play on the left. Davies partnered Clemence in the centre of midfield with Toner on the right and Etherington on the left.

Spurs kicked off the first half attacking the Park Lane with Clemence and Davies matching up with LeTiss and Draper leaving Ciaran with space to attack down the right which is an unusual situation for him as he has tended to be the defensive player in midfield. Both fullbacks had licence to raid down the flanks with plenty of oppotunities to overlap. Spurs took the lead in the 5th minute when Etherington picked up the ball in the centre circle and ran to the edge of the saints area before playing the ball left to Kamanan who had moved to the side of the 18yd box, his centre was missed by a defender and fell nicely for Toner to volley it into the far corner off the post. The same player almost got a second from the same place two minutes later when from a square ball from Korsten Ciaran's shot was tipped around the post by Moss. Draper was completely dominated by Davies and LeTissier was having a hard time against Clemence working hard to make any telling passes. He did have one freekick from 20yds which was deflected for a corner, but was generally held by Stephen. The back line was in dominating form thanks to the grip that the midfield had leaving Kelly with little to do. Up front Kamanan was having to cover a lot of ground as Korsten was not in the mood to do much running and his shooting was wayward as well. With the fullbacks making so many runs down the wings Etherington and Toner came inside more looking for the ball and supporting the backs. Matty was also starting to make runs in the channel that Korsten usually takes prompted by Davies. Gibbens received his yellow card for a tackle from behind on Toner as another Southampton attack was broken up. The closest they came to a goal was in the 44th minute when a ball from LeTissier found Caceres wide on the left, he cut inside Thelwell and hit his shot as Kelly came out. Kelly failed to hold it and Beattie put the lose ball over the bar from 7yds.

Spurs were even more dominating in the second half as Korsten got moving and began to get involved. The ref was reaching for his yellow card following a crunching tackle on LeTiss by Clemence, but almost certainly thanks to the Town star the ref let him off. With prompting from Korsten Etherington started to make more runs down the wing taking on the fullback and getting in crosses. Korsten finally got on the end of one in the 60th minute, having arrived in the six yard box he controlled the low centre turned moved right and hit the ball into the left corner. Southampton immediately changed to three at the back by taking off Hughes which prompted Hughton to bring on Jose for Kamanan. Korsten dropped deep and played balls behind the defence for Domingeuz on the right and Etherington on the left to latch onto using their pace. Twice Matty was played through with only the keeper to beat, each time firing wide of the far post. Jose also had a good chance to increase the lead but Moss saved well. The two wide men also set up chances for Korsten, Davies and Clemence. Hughton took off Young near the end for Hillier who slotted into his usual position at right back allowing Thelwell to move inside. Bruce lead the applause as the team came off at the end of a very good performance. Last season a LeTissier inspired Southampton had beaten us at St.Albans, but this time they were nowhere like the same side as our midfield controlled the game and the 2-0 scoreline flattered the visitors. If only Korsten had applied himself for the whole game, but this seems to be the norm for him. Bruce expressed the hope that Young would be in the side on saturday for the Derby game.

The next home game for the reserves will be at WHL on the 24th October when the visitors will be Leicester City.

Ray