Tottenham Hotspur 3 v Charlton Athletic 0

Well that was less painful than I was expecting, even if depressingly predictable. The fact that we managed to get in 0-0 at half-time was due to a strangely disinterested looking second-string Spurs side and some extremely poor Charlton finishing. 


Our players started brightly enough and you could see the confidence building as they began to win challenges and as Spurs spluttered in attack. Our balls out of defence were poor and the fact that Joe Anyinsah ploughed a lone furrow up front with Dawson following him around wherever he went, meant we never looked like scoring. Anyinsah had to go wide in search of space and it was from a Charlton break that he collected the ball from Wagstaff and cut inside finding a huge amount of space which wasn't closed even as he shaped to shoot. Embarrassingly, he fluffed his shot and it went out for a throw-in. Before the break we had a better chance as Johnnie Jackson got down the left and drove a cross into the box where two red-shirted players collided and wasted a precious second or two dithering which allowed Spurs to clear. That was it really from the first-half and Spurs trudged off to complete silence from the home sections.


Harry Redknapp had evidently seen enough and Wilson Palacios got a half-time shower. Luca Modric appeared for the start of the second-half and Spurs were now in third gear. After an innocuous looking build-up, Andros Townsend spotted a line to the corner of the Charlton goal and drilled a hard shot low beyond the diving Elliot to put Spurs at ease. After that it was one-way traffic and Elliot did brilliantly well to beat out a fine drive and Modric danced through our back line before firing across the face of goal. The second wasn't long in coming and the irrepressible Jermain Defoe shrugged off a couple of half-hearted challenges as he careered through our back line before slotting past Rob Elliot. The third came eleven minutes after the first and it was Defoe again as he made us pay for having taunted and booed him earlier in the match. That was pretty much it for me and I was on my way down Seven Sisters Road before the end.


Talk in the car on the way home focused on who our next manager is likely to be and when we can expect an announcement. The consensus was that there will most likely be an announcement tomorrow that Dennis Wise and Ray Wilkins will be named, although I'd prefer Eddie Howe, especially if it was stealing him from under the noses of Palace.


If it is to be Wise and Wilkins, it might at least signal more ambition and intent than the inexperienced Howe. Wise and Wilkins would command reasonable salaries and would want to know that they had money to work with. The pair would also be able to attract better players to the Valley than Eddie Howe, although he knows this league better than they do.


If it is to be Dennis Wise, he will need to hit the ground running. I expect his appointment could split the fans and it will do nothing to enhance Mr Slater's reputation as I have said. No one likes a liar and he will spend a long time trying to live down the double-crossing of Parky and the disingenuous way he handled his first Dennis Wise question. 


Whatever the decision, we face a very tough game in better half of Sheffield next Saturday and the new manager is going to have to earn his corn as we go in search of our first win of 2011.