Thought a nice respite from the Civil War loss would be to catch Spurs hosting former Rangers (and Scotland) coach Alex McLeish's debut with the Blues, getting cosy on the couch while a wind and rain storm batter the coast and valley.
What I got was the all-too-common defensive meltdown as Spurs let a 2-1 second half lead slip through their fingers to absorb a shocking 3-2 defeat to the visitors, aided a bit by a dubious red card handed out to captain Robbie Keane in the 68th minute with the score knotted at 2.
How in the world Spurs didn't have the lead at half is the classic story of those "unlucky" football days: they moved the ball and created more scoring chances much better than the visitors did, but found themselves on the wrong end 1-0 thanks to a penalty kick from Gary McSheffrey via a dumb takedown from Younes Kaboul; the shots that Spurs did take either sailed over the top bar or were cleanly fielded by Brum goalie Maik Taylor.
Keane scored for Spurs early on in the second half, also on a penalty kick from the same area, when Dimitar Berbatov was leveled, and then hit again just 3 minutes later on a superb pass from Tom Huddlestone. That pass, from out in the midfield, was cleanly controlled by Keane, who then fluidly tapped the ball into the net past Taylor for a 2-1 lead in the 53rd minute. With the superbly confident way that Spurs continued to attack, it certainly seemed that a much-needed victory was on its way (though how Berbatov wound up hitting the post on a point-blank shot just a couple of minutes later showed that the "unlucky" factor was really about to him home in a big way).
Cameron Jerome then tied the score with a lovely shot in the 62nd minute, creating the chance mostly by himself against two Spurs. Then came Keane's red card, forcing the home side to play the last 25 minutes or so with 10 men, and it was really no surprise to Spurs fans when Sebastian Larsson launched a rocket shot from long range in injury time to complete the meltdown.
By my reckoning, in EPL matches anyway, that makes four injury time goals conceded by Spurs this year, costing the team eight points, those matches would be losses to Sunderland and Blackburn as well as draws with Fulham and Liverpool. Of course, Spurs have netted one back, in a draw with Aston Villa, but the fact remains that the calamitous defending Spurs have exhibited this year must certainly take a toll on the team's mental attitude: having to score 2 or 3 just for the possibility of one point isn't always a given, even with all of the money spent on the strike force up front. Grrrrr.
ESPN RECAP
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