Under 20,000 See Tottenham Beat Newcastle 2-1

On Wednesday night; we witnessed possibly the most boring 45 minutes of football for quite some years. A Tottenham player would give the ball away cheaply, to a Newcastle player who is disposessed with ease, only for the next Spurs player to scupper the attack with a mis-placed pass or by wanting too much time on the ball once again. Neither team seemed to want to be there, and the fans definately didn’t want to be there, and they weren’t: less than 20,000 fans were at St. James’ Park to watcg this hugely uninspiring match.

But with the introduction of Giovani and Fraizer Campbell shortly into the first half; the game seemed to liven up, with Giovani adding a creative spark to the midfield and Campbell reverting to the left. Ramos chosing to stick with the typically Spanish 4-2-3-1 formation.

After 61 minutes, the new burst of life that the Spurs players were seemingly given at half time proved decisive, as Pavlyuchenko headed home from a nice Aaron Lennon cross to break the deadlock.

 Newcastle, howerver, never seemed to find their rythm. Or, in fact, their hunger. The lead was doubled five minutes later, when young Jamie O’Hara latched onto a poor pass by Colluccini and neatly finished off the hard work and the game. Pavlyuchenko was replaced later on, by the returning Luka Modric. Michael Owen grabbed a mere consolation late on, and the match finished 2-1 to the visitors. Spurs sail through to the next round, where they face a tough home tie against Liverpool.