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TOTTENHAM 2 (4-5-1): Thorstvedt; Van den Hauwe,
Sedgley, Mabbutt, Edinburgh; Allen, Stewart, Howells, Gascoigne (sub:
Nayim 18min), Samways (sub: Walsh 81min); Lineker.
NOTTM FOREST 1 (4-4-2): Crossley; Charles, Walker, Chettle, Pearce;
Crosby,
Parker, Keane, Woan (sub: Hodge 61min); Clough, Glover (sub: Laws
109min).
Goals: Pearce (16min) 0-1; Stewart (55min) 1-1; Walker (og 94min) 2-1.
Weather: cool and dull. Ground: soft.
Referee: R Milford (Gloucestershire).
RISING powerfully above the
loss of Paul Gascoigne, with damaged ligaments, going a goal behind,
missing a penalty, having a valid goal disallowed, Spurs still defeated
Forest in extra time; and deserved to. Their players matched the
occasion; Forest's fell below it.
How sad an anti-climax it was for Gascoigne. One might almost have
feared as much. Quit while you're ahead, the Americans say, but how
could a player with Gascoigne's appetite and ambition quit before a Cup
final? A final, moreover, into which he had put Spurs with his glorious
display against Arsenal. There was every reason to feel he should not
have played in that game, at all, so soon after his operation, every
reason to fear that he might suffer from the reaction, when the final
took place. So he evidently did.
Quoting the French, rather than the Americans, Gascoigne had a bad
quarter-hour, a very bad quarter-hour, in which his physical problems
were plain. He was responsible for Forest taking the lead with Pearce's
goal, and almost immediately afterwards, he collapsed, went off on a
stretcher, and gave way to Nayim.
Almost from the beginning you could see that Gazza was in trouble. There
was a desperation about his play. It was only in the second minute that
he lunged in, a bad foul, on Parker, leaving the Forest midfielder on
the ground. Right on the quarter-hour, back on the edge of his own
penalty box, he committed another reckless foul, this time on Charles,
the Forest right-back. A dangerous thing to do when you have a free kick
taker like Pearce against you. Almost as dangerous as when you have
Gascoigne himself as an opponent.
Gascoigne takes the free kicks with his right foot, Pearce with his
left. The drive was ferocious; Thorstvedt did not get near it. As if
this were not bad enough, Gascoigne, soon afterwards, crumpled to the
ground and there was the chilling sight of the Tottenham players
gesturing for a stretcher. Off went Gazza, on went Nayim. I wonder what
Lazio think about their expensive purchase now. It is notionally not too
late for them to back out, for Gascoigne has still not put pen to paper.
If they do sign him, which
is surely the gamble of all gambles, how long will it be before he is
even fit to play?
Lineker got the ball in the Forest net, but was ruled offside (TV
replays contradicted the linesman). Off in the 25th minute went Forest
to the other end. Spurs may have had five men in midfield, but their
defence was found horribly wanting, when, at the end of a skilled move,
Woan squared the ball to Crosby, totally and criminally unmarked in the
outside-right position. He should have scored, but Thorstvedt, rising
above the cause of duty, stopped his shot.
Almost at once, Tottenham
struck back against a Forest defence which scarcely looked any more
solid than their own. A neat move on the left saw Nayim confidently
back-heel to Lineker, whose cross was met by the head of Allen. Crossley
held the ball well. Three minutes past the half-hour, and the game
dropped into deepest controversy. An inspired pass by Stewart,
beautifully angled, released Lineker. The England captain easily
negotiated Crossley, the Forest keeper, who promptly brought him down. A
penalty, certainly, but should not Crossley automatically have been sent
off under this season's Fifa dispensation? I have always felt a penalty
to be sufficient punishment for a foul in the box, but that is not what
the current ruling says, and Roger Milford, the Smiling Referee, was
surely obliged to expel Crossley. Had he done so, it is to be supposed
that Lineker would have scored against his substitute. As it was,
Crossley showed that crime can sometimes pay.
Spurs might have conceded another goal early in the second half, but
Howells, having got them into trouble with a miscued back pass, which
put his own keeper out of the picture, atoned when he hooked away
Keane's lob. So Spurs, in the 56th minute, were able to equalise. Nayim,
an influential figure, played a difficult ball from the left nicely to
Allen. He laid it off in turn to Stewart, another forceful figure in the
Spurs midfield, and Stewart's low, angled shot found Crossley no longer
the goalkeeper he was when facing Lineker's penalty. Crossley, however,
redeemed himself in the last minute of normal time with a glorious
one-handed save from Howells's header to Nayim's right-wing corner. So
there was extra time.
Funny game, football. Within just a few minutes, Crossley was in trouble
again, and Tottenham had taken the lead. A cross by Van den Hauwe, a
header by the Spurs substitute, Walsh, which found Crossley marooned,
and the ball came back from the bar. A corner resulted. Nayim, growing
constantly in stature, took it from the right, Stewart, of whom the same
might be said, headed on; and poor Des Walker, never as dominant as you
might have expected, nodded into his own net.
But
then, it was a day of disappointing performances by Forest players.
Crosby
flattered to deceive, Clough and Keane were sadly spasmodic, Woan and
Glover
ineffectual. Is there life after Gazza? Emphatically.
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