On a cold, often fretful night Tottenham drew just enough incision from a room-temperature attacking performance to take a lead into the second leg of this Capital One Cup semi-final. It was a cup tie best described as rugged, as for long periods a well-drilled and energetic Sheffield United midfield pressed and harried and denied Spurs any space to create chances for an attack led, to little effect, by Emmanuel Adebayor.
For all that, Mauricio Pochettino will be delighted to take a clean sheet and a one-goal lead to Bramall Lane after a match when Spurs crunched around in low gear against impressive League One opposition and were then rescued by a needless second-half penalty converted by Andros Townsend
The start of the match had been delayed by 15 minutes owing to the late arrival of the Sheffield United team bus, which took an hour and a half to cross a small section of north London from the team hotel. Despite the creeping chill, the ground was unusually boisterous as United kicked off, noise levels lifted by a cup-sized away support.
Spurs’ team showed five changes from the win over Sunderland, but it was still a strong XI with Christian Eriksen starting to the left and Harry Kane foraging in behind the captain for the night. There had been some surprise before the kick-off at the news Tottenham would be captained by Adebayor. The “Captain, Leader, Legend” banner is no doubt still in the preparation stage but it was a logical move by Pochettino given Adebayor is joint vice-captain with Hugo Lloris, who stood aside here for Michel Vorm.
In an energetically congested start Adebayor’s first significant act was to flex an arm into Louis Reed’s face as he held him off on the halfway line, drawing a booking from the referee, Neil Swarbrick. Going by recent precedents it might even have been a red card but a yellow was surely punishment enough. “I don’t think it was malicious,” a magnanimous Nigel Clough, the Sheffield United manager, said.
In between some sturdy challenges it took 21 minutes for the first effort at goal to arrive, Jamal Campbell-Ryce fizzing a hopeful shot wide from the right wing. Moments later Townsend swung in a free-kick from the right and Eric Dier drew a clawing save from Mark Howard with a header that arrived at an easy height for the goalkeeper.
Townsend was having a mixed night, all eye-catching jinks and sprints mixed with scuffed dribbles and misplaced passes. Alongside him Kane toiled manfully (here is a player who would toil manfully in the role of stadium handyman if he was asked) but the deeper role was a waste of Spurs most obvious cutting edge, the top-scorer scuttling about on the wings while Adebayor lurked in the centre.
Otherwise this was an unusually narrow Spurs, with Townsend and Eriksen always prone to cut inside. “We played a very slow tempo,” Pochettino said. “When every player in front of you takes three or four touches and doesn’t pass the ball this makes it difficult to make chances.”
With 34 minutes gone Spurs finally made a chance from open play, Eriksen playing a lofted pass through the centre that Adebayor controlled with gangling élan before shooting high under pressure from Jay McEveley. And as the half closed Townsend and Dier combined again in exactly the same fashion. This time the header looped wide, and a scoreless first half represented a job well done for Clough’s team.
Before the game the Sheffield United manager had suggested it was “much easier to play” in these bigger games, his players lifted by the full house and the general sense of fizz. Here, though, it was the ability to press, snipe and generally anaesthetise the occasion that stood out, with the promising Reed a composed presence in midfield. As the second half dragged on Eriksen dropped a little deeper, and Kane remained energetically peripheral.
At times Adebayor did press United’s defence but Kane has led this team from the front this season: McEveley and Chris Basham will no doubt have been relieved to see him picking the ball up 40 yards from goal surrounded by an impressively well-drilled red-and-white-striped midfield.
With just over an hour gone and the game still as tight as the Highbury corner roundabout in rush-hour gridlock the loudest cheer of the half so far came for the replacement of Adebayor by Roberto Soldado. And nine minutes later United finally cracked.
With the defence sat deep Jan Vertonghen clipped a pass into the path of Soldado’s meandering run near the goal-line. As the ball bounced McEveley needlessly batted it out of play with his hand.
It was a clear penalty, converted easily by Townsend who, as he had against Chelsea on New Year’s Day, struck the ball hard and low into the corner. Spurs just about deserved the lead, if only for their monopoly of possession. “The onus is on us to get a goal and it might be a different game at Bramall Lane,” Clough promised at the end.
