Spurs Preview

White Hart Lane has tended to be a happy hunting ground for Charlton since our return to the top flight. We are unbeaten in our last six visits to N17, claiming three draws and three wins.
Is it too much to ask for us to extend that record this weekend?

Our away form at the moment shows us picking up one point from the last 15 available, whereas Spurs have only lost once in front of their own fans all season.
On paper it looks a foregone conclusion, but the game isn’t played on paper is it…

Last time out at The Lane was Martin Jol’s first game in charge of Spurs, and we managed to cling on to record a 3-2 victory despite tremendous pressure from the home side late on in the game.
We scored a couple of good goals that day, and with our strike force at the moment I’m confident that if chances are made, we can definitely put them away. It’s just a question of how solid we are at the back.

Spurs are without Mido who is still away at The African Nations, and I doubt very much if Rasiak will be given another start after the mare of a performance he gave at Fulham, so I expect Spurs will revert back to the Keane and Defoe partnership up top for this match. A front two who aren’t a threat in the air at all, but both have quick feet and pace. A potent threat no doubt, but yet Spurs have gone 277 minutes without a premiership goal.
They are also giving late tests to both Davids and Taino, Michael Dawson is banned, and new signing Ghaly is doubtful.

Over on our side of the water, the BBC says that both Holland and Rommedahl are struggling to win their fitness races, so it looks like Kish will start in place of Holland, with that being the only change from the side that bored us all to tears against West Brom.

I never posted a match report after that game because to be quite honest there wasn’t too much to report on. I’ve already forgotten most of the match, but one gripe I do remember were the constant long balls up towards the front two which they consistently failed to bring under control.
I’m not sure whether Curbs had told them to play that way but it seemed that we hoofed it at every available opportunity on Tuesday, and with minimal success. Smertin isn’t a bad passer of the ball, and while he is in the side I hope that we can play it through him on the floor a little bit more.

One other thing while I’m on the subject of the West Brom game.
I love kicking towards the Covered End in the second half, and its always been tradition to play towards your home faithful as the legs begin to tire, so it just strikes me as odd that almost every team that come to the Valley turns it around these days.
I’m getting so used to us kicking towards the Jimmy Seed in the second half recently that I’m starting to wonder whether its us that change ends if we win the toss. Anyone else noticed this trend over the last year or so?

Back to Spurs. The atmosphere is going to be pretty hot I’d imagine, what with the whole Murphy situation.
I had assumed that he would be playing this weekend because he signed in plenty of time to complete registration, but it turns out that a clause was inserted into the deal to say that he couldn’t face us on Sunday. The upshot is that we don’t have to worry about him playing a blinder and laying on three goals for SE7’s most hated of all opposition strikers.

We do however, have to deal with the fact that he is doubtless going to be paraded around in front of us on the pitch before the match holding a Spurs scarf above his head like he’d never turned them down in the first place.

Remember what he said about our away support? If you’re going to The Lane this weekend, make sure you’re loud and proud.

Cynic Athletic’s Prediction – 2-1 Defeat (Keane, Lennon – D.Bent)