After a hectic week of FA Cup action the Premiership was back underway as all but four teams readied themselves for some midweek games. Tuesday’s games saw Tottenham back in action after their 2-2 Cup draw with Leeds United; they hosted Fulham at White Hart Lane.
Ex Burnley boss Owen Coyle invited his old team to The Reebok Stadium as he prepared his Bolton side for a tough game. The financially troubled pair of Portsmouth and West Ham met at Fratton Park whilst Liverpool paid a visit to Wolves, hoping for their small run of good form to continue.
Tottenham started well against Fulham and piled on a lot of early pressure, they have found goals hard to come by in the league lately but Peter Crouch helped them into their stride on twenty-seven minutes when he poked the ball in from four or five yards after a mistake by the Goalkeeper.
Bentley made it 2-0 to Tottenham just before the hour mark after his Free-kick took a wicked deflection of Riise and sent the Goalkeeper the wrong way. Fulham tried to fight their way back into the match but rarely tested Gomes’ goal and Tottenham defended well as this game ended with a 2-0 win for Spurs.
In the big match at Bolton the home side were the first to score and they did so in controversial circumstances. Lee was put through by Davies and beat the ‘keeper to finish on thirty-five minutes but it later became clear that the goal-scorer was offside when the ball was played. This goal that shouldn’t have been turned out to be the only goal and the decisive winner for Bolton who rose out of the relegation zone – with Burnley dropping in.
Portsmouth’s woes looked to continue against West Ham when Kaboul knocked the ball past his own ‘keeper on fifty-three minutes to give the home crowd something else to be depressed about, but on seventy-six minutes substitute Danny Webber gave them something to cheer about with a neat finish to square the game up. The game ended 1-1, perhaps a predictable result in the end but one that won’t help either side out of their current troubles.
In the other game of the night Liverpool were held to a disappointing 0-0 draw at Wolves. No doubt the fans of The Reds had thought their fortunes had picked up after last week’s 2-0 win against Tottenham but it seems they are still struggling and they will consider this two points dropped.
