Post match observations...

It was progress.

The players worked much harder and while we had lacked the final product, we created much more and defended much better. ...

At least we are heading upwards in the league table for a change after this weekends results ...

Continue with the double training sessions, Ramos.

Guys

I thought the match was utter crap and the performance by Spurs one of the worst I've seen in years. FFS they are are playing for a new coach and are supposed to be fired up and fighting for the places, not to mention our survival. Dawson, imho, was the only one to come out of the match with any credit. I know others at Delaney's thought Steeeeed did well but, to be honest, I think this guy flatters to deceive. He's a 45 minute player at most and if he is considered our best midfielder then we are well and truly fu%ked. Our mf lacks bite - we have no ball winner there and when teams as bad as Boro can simply overrun us, then it is clear we have major problems. There were also moments of comical defending yet again.

Did Berbatov do anything when he came on? What is wrong with the guy? Ramos may as well have taken him off and let us play with 10 men for all the use he was. Bent has scored more than him this season and played only a fraction of the time.

The Jan window is usually a waste of time, so I reckon we have to make do with what we have till the end of the season. Just hope they have the guts, passion and skill to get us out of what will soon be a dogfight.

ozspur wrote:

Guys

I thought the match was utter crap and the performance by Spurs one of the worst I've seen in years. FFS they are are playing for a new coach and are supposed to be fired up and fighting for the places, not to mention our survival. Dawson, imho, was the only one to come out of the match with any credit. I know others at Delaney's thought Steeeeed did well but, to be honest, I think this guy flatters to deceive. He's a 45 minute player at most and if he is considered our best midfielder then we are well and truly fu%ked. Our mf lacks bite - we have no ball winner there and when teams as bad as Boro can simply overrun us, then it is clear we have major problems. There were also moments of comical defending yet again.

Did Berbatov do anything when he came on? What is wrong with the guy? Ramos may as well have taken him off and let us play with 10 men for all the use he was. Bent has scored more than him this season and played only a fraction of the time.

The Jan window is usually a waste of time, so I reckon we have to make do with what we have till the end of the season. Just hope they have the guts, passion and skill to get us out of what will soon be a dogfight.

Mmm? Any 3rd or 4th opinions? I couldn't watch the match nor make it down to Delaney's as I was jammed up at work sadly. Saw a few flickers of the game at a distance on one of the TVs but hardly caught a glimpse of anything and was only really watching the scoreline.

Why or why can't we hold a lead?

I'm sure that even after the January window closes, we will still be pointing out how poor our midfield is, how clumsey our defense is, how much Bent and Berbatov have become pants and why is Jenas and Huddlestone still in the general first choice 11 !!!

Stew.

Can hardly complain about the goal we conceded last night, Stew - it went like a bloody exocet into the top corner, even with the bus parked there it would have gone in. First time in ages we actually had the ball down their end of the pitch for most of the final minutes and I wasn't fretting terribly that we were going to concede a goal - gotta be something of an improvement.

GDG wrote:

Can hardly complain about the goal we conceded last night, Stew - it went like a bloody exocet into the top corner, even with the bus parked there it would have gone in. First time in ages we actually had the ball down their end of the pitch for most of the final minutes and I wasn't fretting terribly that we were going to concede a goal - gotta be something of an improvement.

My thoughts exactly. When they held up the board for 3 extra minutes I thought, here we go, Middlesborough bound to score now. But, amazingly we held on. You never know, in a few months time we might even be thinking about scoring ourselves in extra time.

Well, what are we complaining about? It's the first step of our brand new 5 year plan. Ramos should be around somewhere between 18 to 27 months. I think he'll be sacked at halfttime of the 7th game in the 2009 - 2010 season. But I digress. It's such a pity Luke Young wasted his goal on a crap game like that. And these guys are professional footballers playing in the EPL?

The match was awful, illuminated only by the two goals. Middlesbro are a terrible team and so are we. Dawson and KPB were the only two that consistently shone through for us. The Three Amigos have a mountain to climb with the players at their disposal. 12 games in and we're the fourth worst team in the league. I don't expect us to climb out of the bottom six or eight all season. A horrible relegation battle looms. IF we can get 3 or 4 wins out of our next 4 league games the pressure could ease but it will all be heaped on again when we lose to the bigger teams. It's catch up, relegation football from now to May chaps.

And to give a little more context to our performance, here's what The Times wrote:

Middlesbrough 1 Tottenham Hotspur 1: Ramos misses trick by making the wrong call

On afternoons such as this, when the football is look-away bad, it is easy for the mind and eyes to roam.

Even Juande Ramos turned away at times, despite this being his first Premier League match in charge of Tottenham Hotspur. There were moments when his opposite number, Middlesbrough's Gareth Southgate, did the same. But a disconcerting sight awaited both of them when this happened: they saw what they had on the bench.

For Ramos this should have offered supreme reassurance, as sitting in the Spurs dugout were Robbie Keane, Dimitar Berbatov and Didier Zokora. However, they were only there because Ramos, in his first big decision at the club, had dropped them. It was some call and, ultimately, the wrong one. The thing is, Middlesbrough were here for the taking.

When Southgate turned away from the latest misplaced Boro pass he saw, alongside George Boateng, two teenagers, Seb Hines and Ben Hutchinson, who have yet to start a league game. They were not there through choice; it was because that is all Boro had left.

Threadbare in terms of personnel and fragile in confidence, having lost their previous five matches, Boro could hardly have been more inviting opponents for Ramos. On the pitch, having lost Jonathan Woodgate on Saturday morning, Southgate had 20-year-old David Wheater playing in his 15th game, and Chris Riggott. It was a central defensive partnership that had featured in Boro's 2-0 defeat at White Hart Lane five weeks earlier.

I'd like to add that Spurs also had reason to play slightly nervously, considering (a) they hadn't won for 8 PL games, (b) away from home amd (c) playing in front of a new head coach in his 1st Prem game in charge. (ie, bottom-line really is, DEFEAT IS UNACCEPTABLE AT ALL COSTS... 1 point IS better than none)

I thought we coped much better with Boro's (admittedly woeful) crosses into the box. As GDG said, there's nothing we could have done about that rocket from Young.... cheers pal, nice fucking timing !?!?!?

We were ahead in most areas of the pitch for most of the match, although our lack of confidence started to show after they scored (albeit, not as badly as in previous matches, either).

It was evident that not losing this match was just as much on the teams mind as winning. It's not the worst result (or dare I say it, performance) that I've seen from our Lillywhites... just need to look back, if you can bear the pain, of watching our last match highlights against Getafe.

Now that's pittifully woeful amigos. I maintain my original belief that the performance against Boro was progress...

I for one, am very much looking forward to our next 4 (very winnable) and confidence boosting matches !

COOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOME

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON

YOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

SPURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRS

We were worse against Sunderland on the opening day of the season.

At least I saw some bite from the Prince. Jenas put me to sleep as usual. zzz

My thoughts for what they are worth are that we need to put things into perspective.

Yes, it was a dire game to watch and yes Boro shoulda been there for the taking.

However, we were a wonder-strike away from a 1-0 away win. It'll take time for Ramos to have an impact - he hadn't even had a full week of training out of the team yet. Positives were Bent not only scoring but looking confident (compared with his form in all other games this season). KPB did ok too and Dawson looks to be on the way back up.

Had Young not popped up with that goal, we'd all be saying that it was a crap game and we won ugly, but it's a good start.

I personally didnt rate the decision to haul off both defoe and bent on 58 mins for B'er-Be-Off and Keano

True. Maybe he wanted to demonstrate in one fell swoop that all will get a chance?

Bent should have stayed on. I was pleasantly surprised by him

Number 10 wrote:

I was pleasantly surprised by him

Oh really? Do tell.

Me? In the away changing room with Mr Benty? With my reputation?