We got off to the worst possible start. Pompey kicked off but found ourselves a goal behind after 43 seconds after David James spilled a shot and the ball fell to Glen Johnson 2 yards out. Johnson stood on the ball to protect it for far too long and the returning Dimitar Berbatov poked a leg to the ball and it went to Danny Murphy who scored the most stupid and ridiculous goal we'll concede all season.
Then came the "penalty" decision after a "foul" by Pedro Mendes. Didier Zakora went into the box and Mendes took the ball from him and dragged it back. Zakora went over his leg and the ref blew up for a foul to the surprise of Mendes. For those of you who haven't seen the incident yet, make no mistake it was a blatant dive. Defoe stepped up and scored to put Tottenham 2-0 up undeservedly and you always knew it was going to be a mountain to climb for Pompey after that.
I can't fault the performance of the players in a black shirt in the first half. Even after conceding a stupid goal we won a succession of corners and put Spurs under a bit of pressure. Even after the complete injustice of the second goal our heads didn't drop and we kept going and deservedly pulled one back after some Gary O'Neil managed to beat Assou-Ekotto on the right and whip in a great cross for Kanu to head in his 5th of the season, justifying Harry's decision to start him although Benjani was dropped for Lomana Lua Lua. Niko Kranjcar also came in for Matty Taylor and whilst he played well in parts of the game, he sometimes wasted oppurtunities and gave the ball away too easily.
We started brightly in the second half having the majority of the possession but unfortunatly we couldn't find that killer ball as Tottenham sat back and defended. Harry subbed Stefanovic and Davis off for Benjani and Andy Cole but other than Cole having a shot that was deflected out for a corner, neither he nor Benjani had any major influence in the game. Neither goalkeeper had a save to make until near the end either when David James made a great save from Defoe as he ran on the counter-attack. Pompey penned Tottenham in their own half at the end of the game and Lua Lua could have earnt us a point with a header into the top corner but Paul Robinson produced a quality save to deny Pompey anything from White Hart Lane yet again when we probably deserved something because Tottenham ended up winning through a blatant act of cheating.
Despite our second defeat, we still lie in 4th in the table as we go into the boring international break and I'm certainly happy with that. The break will give Manuel Fernandes and Andy Cole time to reach peak fitness ahead of our next game against West Ham at home. We're still yet to put in a dire performance but the team face a real test of character of how they're going to bounce back from these defeats and also a real test of their ability as our next run of away games takes us to Stamford Bridge, Old Trafford, St. James' Park, Anfield and the Emirates Stadium.
All in all I'm very pleased with the way we have started and performed this season but the truly great tests lie ahead and only after those will we have any real idea of what Pompey are capable of this season.