Spurs coast home on empty
Tottenham Hotspur 0 - Blackburn Rovers
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Your support makes all the difference.Martin Jol and Mark Hughes were not Premiership managers when the season started, both finding employment when their respective clubs were struggling to convince they belonged in the top flight. This match did little to enhance their reputations, but at least Jol and Hughes will get a chance to hit the ground running with Tottenham and Blackburn next season.
Martin Jol and Mark Hughes were not Premiership managers when the season started, both finding employment when their respective clubs were struggling to convince they belonged in the top flight. This match did little to enhance their reputations, but at least Jol and Hughes will get a chance to hit the ground running with Tottenham and Blackburn next season.
The Premiership table has not hid their mediocrity this season, though, as Tottenham finished ninth, Blackburn 15th. Tottenham's progress was reflected by the loud ovation they received afterwards.
It could have been an even bigger party. To sneak seventh and the last Uefa Cup qualifying spot, Tottenham needed an unlikely sequence of events; they had to rely on Manchester City beating Middlesbrough with themselves winning by a margin three goals better than any City victory.
However, a big win against a Blackburn side just happy still to be in the Premiership was not a far-fetched prospect as Jol did steer his side to scoring five in their last home game, against Aston Villa, but that was with Jermain Defoe and Frédéric Kanouté.
Jol left his leading scorer Defoe on the bench in favour of Robbie Keane yesterday and there was no real urgency about either side throughout the first half, though the atmosphere picked up when news of a City equaliser filtered through shortly into the second half and Noureddine Naybet went within inches of volleying Spurs in front.
Both managers tried to bolster their attack eight minutes later as Defoe and Jemal Johnson came on. Neither side looked like scoring, nor too bothered about the outcome and the same applied to both sets of supporters, who sang on throughout the game, presumably happy with the strides forward their clubs had taken this season.
Tottenham Hotspur (4-4-2): Cerny; Kelly, Naybet, King, Edman; Davies, Carrick, Davis (Marney, 71), Reid (Defoe, 61); Kanouté, Keane. Substitutes not used: Fulop (gk), Bunjevcevic, Ziegler.
Blackburn Rovers (4-1-4-1): Friedel; Neill, Nelsen, Todd, McEveley; Mokoena; Emerton, Savage, Thompson, Pedersen; Stead (Johnson, 61). Substitutes not used: Enckelman (gk), Tugay, Johansson, Douglas.
Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire).
Booked: Tottenham Hotspur Naybet; Blackburn Rovers Savage, Neill.
Man of the match: Mokoena.
Attendance: 35,797.
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