Friday 8 April 2011

Top 4 On Friday - Game-changing gaffes

Peter Crouch's foolish red card on Tuesday night may well have given us a mountain to climb in the European quarter-final home leg, but it did at least give Taxi For Maicon an idea for the Top 4 On Friday.

It's not going to make pretty reading but this week we're looking at Tottenham's biggest game-changing gaffes.

I should qualify, that I'm aware Peter Crouch's sending off is probably worthy of the No.1 spot, but we all know what happened, so I've left it out.

4. Sol Campbell - FA Cup semi-final vs Newcastle, Apr 1999

Having already won the League Cup earlier in the season, Spurs fans were dreaming of a Cup double. The Newcastle semi-final was a nervy affair and we felt hard done-by when the ref denied us a penalty for a blatant Nikos Dabizas handball in the second half.

Then, in extra-time, with the game evenly poised, Gary Speed played a one-two with Duncan Ferguson and our Sulzeer Jeremiah inexplicably threw his arm up to slap the ball as it sailed over him. Shearer scored the pen, then a wonder strike just to rub it in. Newcastle won the game and we missed out on a final with Man United.


3. Heurelho Gomes - Champions League group stage, Oct 2010

Our unpredictable goalie could maybe have made a clean sweep of the whole Top 4 game-changing gaffes, but this one made by far the biggest "clang".

We were already 1-0 down after Inter Milan scored with their first attack of the game but, as our defence was again caught out, Gomes raced kamikaze-style from his goal to challenge Jonathan Biabiany.

Clattering the attacker, Gomes was immediately show the red card and we were down to ten men after just 8 minutes. Gareth Bale's second-half hat-trick deflected media attention away from the blushing Brazilian but there is no denying it changed the course of the game.


2. Gary Mabbutt - FA Cup Final v Coventry, May 1987

Mabbs was a model captain at Tottenham, making 482 appearances and becoming our longest-serving player between 1982-1998, but that doesn't take away from his extra-time nightmare at Wembley.

Tied at 2-2, Spurs had led twice and were pinned back by goals from Dave Bennett and Keith Houchen, the latter a diving header which was named goal of the season by the BBC.

Early on in extra-time, Mabbutt threw himself at a cross, which looped up off his knee and over Ray Clemence in our goal. Terrible luck, but It won the tie for Coventry and was the first time we had ever been beaten in the FA Cup Final.

At least Mabbutt had a further 11 years to make up for it.

1. Paul Gascoigne - FA Cup Final v Nottingham Forest, May 1991

This was meant to be Gazza's FA Cup Final; he'd already set Wembley alight with his famous free-kick in the semi-final against Arsenal and had scored some brilliant goals in a memorable Cup run.

Worked up and raring to go, the bullish midfielder threw himself into the task and was lucky not to be booked for a hefty studs-up challenge on Garry Parker. Gazza followed up with an awkward lunge on Gary Charles, injuring himself in the process and ending his involvement in the game after just 15 minutes.

Stuart Pearce scored from the resulting free-kick and, whilst Spurs battled back to win their eighth FA Cup, Paul Gascoigne's knee – and his hopes of a dream final – were left in tatters.

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