Sheffield Wednesday climbed off the foot of the Premiership with their first
away win of the season courtesy of Niclas Alexandersson's 38th-minute strike and
a defiant all-round performance aided by sloppy Tottenham at White Hart Lane.
So much for the infamous 'Gang of Four' who have made manager Danny Wilson's
life a misery, calling for his head in recent weeks as well as a total
turn-around at Hillsborough.
Inadvertently it has inspired Wilson's battling Owls to redouble their
survival efforts and against Spurs they unveiled all their fighting qualities, even though George Graham's team gave them every assistance with a dismal
display.
Wednesday rode their luck, particularly in the first half, when goalkeeper
Pavel Srnicek made a string of brave saves and David Ginola's shot crashed
against the crossbar.
They also thanked the gods for an astonishing miss by Chris Armstrong just
after the hour when the Spurs striker somehow contrived to put the ball wide from just eight yards when completely unmarked.
Spurs had played for too much of the first half as though the breakthrough was
only a matter of time and paid for their lack of penetration and urgency when
Alexandersson caught them on the break with a classic counter-punch.
Lofty Dutchman Gerald Sibon's visionary lob into the box was inspirational and
compatriot Wim Jonk read it perfectly, laying the ball off for Sweden's
Alexandersson to bury a right-foot drive for his sixth goal of the season.
Spurs, previously beaten only twice at White Hart Lane this term, were suddenly
regretting earlier near misses.
Steffen Iversen had a header which Srnicek
turned over the bar and Stephen Clemence saw his shot at an open goal
deflected away by two of his own-team-mates - first Armstrong and then Darren
Anderton.
When Armstrong missed so badly again in the second half, manager George Graham
became so desperate that he called for wholesale changes - a triple substitution.
This removed Armstrong, Clemence and Justin Edinburgh and brought on Allan
Nielsen, Luke Young and debut-making Willem Korsten.
It made no difference. If anything, Wednesday became stronger in their resolve
and passed the ball better than Spurs. Gilles de Bilde had two good chances to
make the game safe before the end and Spurs keeper Ian Walker had to make an
acrobatic leap to keep out skipper Peter Atherton's header.
Ginola was one of the few Spurs stars to match Wednesday's passion.
He was
desperately unlucky again with a 25-yard rocket skimmed just wide and then, just
before the end, dribbled through onto Iversen's flick only put his shot into the
side netting from a rapidly-diminishing angle.
What Spurs fans remained at that stage jeered their team off at the end and
the result was a major setback to Graham's hopes of a fourth-place finish this
season.
For the second year running, Wednesday pulled off a win at White Hart Lane and
though they were under siege for long spells their spirit never wavered.
They even had to survive an extra minute of stoppage time after a linesman had
to strip off his shirt to recover a walkie-talkie earpiece that had slipped down
his neck.
Wednesday's determined defence, with Atherton and evergreen Des Walker
outstanding, were never as exposed as they stretched their unbeaten revival run
to five matches.
Teams
Tottenham: Walker, Carr, Perry, Campbell, Edinburgh (Young 62),
Anderton, Clemence (Nielsen 62), Sherwood, Ginola,
Armstrong (Korsten 62), Iversen.
Subs Not Used: Baardsen, Dominguez.
Sheff Wed: Srnicek, Nolan, Atherton, Walker, Hinchcliffe,
Alexandersson, Jonk, Haslam, Quinn (Scott 73), Sibon, De Bilde (Donnelly 89).
Subs Not Used: Pressman, Sonner, Cresswell.
Goals: Alexandersson 38.
Att: 35,897
Ref: M Riley (Leeds).
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