Crouch gets it started

Well that was fun wasn’t it?

Spurs pump nine goals past Wigan’s goalie and the team is back in the top four.

It was probably the one of the best performances I have ever seen by the team. How many would we have scored if Modric had been playing?

And a special plug to Harry Redknapp, who after the game, rather than gloating or bragging was very classy in expressing sincerely his concern for how Wigan’s coach was feeling.

Admitedly, Wigan were pretty awful and hardly played after they went 3-1 down. But take nothing away from Spurs, they were spectacular. The defence and Gomes barely had anything to do, but all the midfield were magnificent and Defoe was fantastic in bagging five.

This was the highest scoring Premier League win in 12 years, the first time a player had scored five since Shearer scored did it in 1999 and the second fastest hat trick in the league’s history.

I remember watching the last time Tottenham scored nine…against Bristol Rovers when Spurs were down in the Second Division for year long time out. I think Martin Chivers bagged a hat trick that day back in 1977. That was a happy day too.

If only Spurs could play like that every week. Today’s game certainly vindicated the first choice eleven as an assertive and ambitious team. Lennon, Palacios, and Huddlestone were always pushing forward, looking for options and fighting for every ball. Today’s performance by Lennon was one of the best performances of the year by anyone in any position and surely he must be a first choice for England now. Krancjar, who has been up and down for me, today showed that he can be a great fill in for Modric.

The next three games are against Aston Villa, Everton and Wolves. These games could cement the team in the top four, especially as Liverpool and Man City are dropping off and Arsenal have to cope without Van Persie. While it did seem like wracking up the score at the end of the game, it does mean Tottenham cut into Arsenal’s superior goal difference and put a few goals between Spurs and fifth place Villa.

Perhaps were could repeat this performance in a couple of weeks when we play Man U in the Carling Cup and we should be gunning for some revenge. As one of my kid’s TV show characters says, that would make my heart super happy!

I usually have this sort of post up by November 11, but was away this year…so belatedly here is something to reflect upon.

The Soldier by Rupert Brooke (1887-1915)

 I should die, think only this of me:

That there’s some corner of a foreign field

That is for ever England. There shall be

In that rich earth a richer dust conceal’d;

A dust whom England bore, shaped, made aware,

Gave, once, her flowers to love, her ways to roam,

A body of England’s, breathing English air.

Wash’d by the rivers, blest by suns of home.

And think, this heart, all evil shed away,

A pulse in the eternal mind, no less

Gives somewhere back the thoughts by England given;

Her sights and sounds; dreams happy as her day;

And laughter, learnt of friends; and gentleness,

In hearts at peace, under an English heaven.