Tottenham booked their place in the fourth round of the FA Cup but needed extra time to beat National League side Tamworth on Sunday afternoon.
Spurs were convincing favorites for this game, but Andy Peaks’ underdogs proved to be very stubborn opponents. The hosts were brave in the breaks and encouraged Tottenhamfrustration as the contest progressed.
However, they were made to pay for several missed chances late on, with the Premier League side eventually bowing out in extra time.
How the match unfolded
There was time for modest theatrics before kick-off, which was delayed a few minutes due to a problem with one of the networks. The duct tape was out and Zara sales assistant (and Tamworth winger) Beck-Ray Enoru was on hand to complete the DIY job that allowed the cup tie to begin.
Enoru was the first protagonist on the pitch with his lively attacks giving Pedro Porro something to think about. He forced a very early save from Antonin Kinsky and Spurs enjoyed their first experience of Tommy Tonks’ long throw inside five minutes.
The Premier League the visitors initially struggled with Tamworth’s sloping astroturf which never allowed the ball to settle. The surface exposed the technical limitations within a rotated Spurs XI, although James Maddison and Yves Bissouma were two who acclimatised quickly and ensured the visitors settled down.
Maddison twice came close to breaking the deadlock and certainly looked the better of the rest, but Jas Singh was on hand to deny the Tottenham captain. Tamworth, meanwhile, continued to maintain a threat through Enoru down the left, while Tonks’ circus throws were a feature of the first half – even if Kinsky dealt with them well.
Tamworth’s hard work meant the visitors did not concede an opening goal in the opening period and the game began in ‘bringing your big players’ into the territory for Ange Postecoglou.
Tottenham’s frustration seeped into the second half when Singh again saved Maddison. Spurs did kick through the gears and started to create with Mikey Moore trickling down the left, but Tamworth almost held firm with Hadyn Hollis clearing Tim Werner’s header on the line before Singh made a good save from the German one-on-one. -one.
The hosts did have their moments from the continuation, but they failed to jump on the second and third balls in the box after a sequence of short chaos. The most important thing is that they stayed in the game in the last 20 minutes. Andy Peak’s substitutions provided a second wind, however, and the underdog hosts twice came close to completing a historic turnaround in second-half stoppage time.
However, Tottenham saw extra time.
The extra period proved to be a bridge too far for the non-leaguers as the Spurs pulled away. The start was as bad as the visitors’ display, but the one that followed after Dejan Kulusevski, Son Heung-min and Djed Spence joined the action. Kulusevski dispatched a clinical second soon after before Brennan Johnson added some gloss to the scoreline.
Check out the player ratings for Tamworth v Tottenham here.
Tottenham went into Sunday’s game after a Victory 1-0 over the best team in the country. 96 league places separated the two teams in what was a true David vs Goliath FA Cup duel that did its best to showcase the magic of a supposedly fading competition.
We’re all aware of ‘Spursy’ and its connotations, and the latest iteration of Ange Postecoglou’s side has hardly done enough to dispel that notion. They were heavy favorites here, but the Jekyll and Hyde nature of Ange’s team meant their struggles were predictable against National League opposition.
The surface was not easy to play on and they created enough to win the game in 90 minutes. However, their performance would be more of a concern than a positive with the ‘big guns’ needed to pull away from National League opposition.
Yves Bissouma put in an outstanding performance and the substitutions did make the difference in the end, but most of the Spurs players struggled to adapt to the unfamiliar surroundings and were prone to major upsets.
Tottenham were below par in Tamworth, but they probably should have done the job before extra time.
Maddison’s efforts, which were few, did not break the ‘half-chance’ threshold, but Werner he was guilty of wasting a golden opportunity offered to him by Brennan Johnson. The German, who struggled at the top before drifting left, dropped his shot low which allowed Jas Singh to save.
The confidence with which he currently operates meant that very few people would have backed him as he fell on the Tamworth finish. Earlier, Werner had a good header cleared off the line by the impressive Haydn Hollis.
Werner’s woes were not limited to his extravagance. On the test field, the striker failed to provide technical security in the first line. Ange’s decision to withdraw the exciting Mikey Moore on the hour left Spurs with two straight runners in the final third from the opening 90, with the hosts struggling to probe and create results.
When not meeting at the back post, the contributions of Brennan Johnson and Werner are almost always under scrutiny.
Huddersfield and Burton Albion had already felt the wrath of Andy Peaks’ super-teams, and this was Tottenham’s turn.
This was perhaps the biggest occasion in Tamworth’s history, with high excitement but low expectations. Anyone connected with the club would bite your hand off for extra time before kick-off, and they were so close to completing the all-time record. Only two National League teams have beaten Premier League opposition in this competition, and they came so close to finishing third.
While the foreign surface and Werner’s problems helped the hosts, Tamworth deserve huge credit for their entry. Haydn Hollis was brilliant at the back, while EFL scouts will no doubt carry out Beck-Ray Enoru’s due diligence afterwards. Jas Singh may have been tested less than he would have predicted, but he still made a number of big stops to ensure the cup tie was extended.
Extra time was too far, but the city of Tamworth will remember the occasion fondly for a long time. They took one of the biggest clubs in the country to the end.
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