Charlton Athletic Versus Tottenham Hotspur preview
By MattoftheSpurs
May 4 2007
The push for European qualification see Spurs visit relegation favourites Charlton Athletic at the Valley on Monday night. For Spurs it is the first in three vital matches inside the last week of the Premiership season. Charlton will be desperate for the points in their bid to escape the drop.
Charlton Athletic
Versus
Tottenham Hotspur
7th May 2007
The Valley
The Premier League
Kick Off 8.00pm
Live on Sky Sports 1 and Sky Sports HD 1
The push for automatic European qualification see Spurs visit relegation favourites Charlton Athletic at the Valley on Monday night. For Spurs it is the first in three vital matches inside the last week of the Premiership season. Charlton will be desperate for the points in their bid to escape the drop. Whilst Charlton cannot be relegated mathematically by 8pm on Monday evening they could well be needing two wins from their last two games to stand any chance of staying in the Premiership and not playing in the Coca Cola Championship next season.
Tottenham’s visits to South London have often reaped rewards. The two clubs have played each other in the league on 24 occasions with Spurs coming out winners 12 times. The Addicks have registered 8 wins in those matches with the remaining 4 matches being draws. Spurs have scored 43, whilst in reply Charlton have scored 32.
The last time out at The Valley in October 2005 between these two teams saw a fantastic match. Spurs started slowly with Charlton well on top in the early exchanges. Darren Bent gave the Addicks the lead after 25 minutes when a well placed pass by Danny Murphy caught the Spurs defence flat footed and Bent strode onto the pass to score. Charlton’s tally was doubled 3 minutes into the second half when a pass from Jerome Thomas once again caught the Spurs defence napping and Bent once again made no mistake as he curled a delightful shot into the top right corner of Paul Robinson’s goal. Spurs were now stung into action and the deficit was halved just 3 minutes later. A Pedro Mendes free kick on the left hand side of the Charlton half was deftly flicked on by Mido. His header then struck the foot of Ledley King at the far post and Spurs were back in the game. Spurs then upped the tempo in an attempt to level the scores and their hard work paid off in the 64th minute. A sweet reverse pass by Tainio released Mido whose shot from an acute angle on the left hand side of Charlton’s box was too fiercely struck for Andersen in the Charlton goal and Spurs were back on level terms. Charlton were desperately clinging on at this stage and sensing a win Martin Jol sent on Robbie Keane to up the ante. The gamble paid off when the Irish striker latched onto a pass from Jemaine Defoe to emphatically steal all three points ten minutes from time.
The last ten matches played at the home of Charlton Athletic have been shaded by Spurs.
The record for the last ten encounters reads;
01/10/05 Charlton Athletic 2 v 3 Tottenham Hotspur (King, Mido, Keane)
16/03/05 Charlton Athletic 2 v 0 Tottenham Hotspur
11/02/04 Charlton Athletic 2 v 4 Tottenham Hotspur (Davies, Defoe, King, Jackson)
27/08/02 Charlton Athletic 0 v 1 Tottenham Hotspur (Davies)
08/12/01 Charlton Athletic 3 v 1 Tottenham Hotspur (Poyet)
16/09/00 Charlton Athletic 1 v 0 Tottenham Hotspur
20/04/99 Charlton Athletic 1 v 4 Tottenham Hotspur (Iverson, Campbell, Dominguez, Ginola)
14/10/89 Charlton Athletic 1 v 3 Tottenham Hotspur (Gascoigne, Lineker, Thomas)
08/10/88 Charlton Athletic 2 v 2 Tottenham Hotspur (Fenwick (pen), P.Allen)
05/05/88 Charlton Athletic 1 v 1 Tottenham Hotspur (Hodge)
Alan Pardew has already admitted this week in an interview with Sky Sports News that Spurs are a better team and that the only way Charlton will get anything out of the match is too work harder than Spurs. Spurs will need to match the work rate of Charlton and if they do that then the difference in class should tell.
Charlton will be desperate for the points as will Spurs. Three wins from their last three matches and Spurs will be guaranteed fifth place in the league at the end of the season. To match the league position of last season along with cup runs that took the team to the semi final of the Carling Cup, the quarter final of the FA Cup and after a long run in Europe a quarter final exit to UEFA Cup finalists Sevilla would be a great achievement and a positive step to putting Spurs back on the footballing map.
The final push starts on Monday night in front of the Sky Sports cameras, and then continues back at White Hart Lane on Thursday against Blackburn Rovers, again in full view of the Sky Sports crew, before the final match of the season at home to Manchester City. Each game is now as important as a cup final if we are to prove that Tottenham’s rightful place is as one of Europe’s finest and as supporters we play a major part. Get behind your team, you can rest your voices through the summer. We won’t let them down, and they won’t let us down. Together we are Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.
Enjoy the match.
Audere Est Facere.