This was better, much better. For a start Rodgers had obviously told the team that they didn't have to follow his instructions 100 per cent of the time. So we had Loach kicking it out when appropriate and we didn't pass it around the defence when the clock was ticking down.
Everyone was up for it too. For once the home crowd were noisier than the away end. How often is it you hear a 'we forgot that you were here' aimed at the Vicarage Road end? It felt like one of the classic cup nights of the 80s. It started that way too.
We battered their goal for the first 15 minutes winning a succession of corners. The plaudits for our goal on telly went to Tommy Smith but the man who really made it was Jon Harley who was immense all match. Aaron Lennon looked especially surprised at the hard time he was being given. Harley won a 50-50 ball in our half and then raced away with it. He passed to Smith who crossed it to Priskin, who again proved that he is much better with his feet than he is with his head, turning two spurs defenders and slotting home. We went mad and a shortly after Brendan was accepted into the fold with a Brendan Rodgers' yellow army chant.
Our goal then lead a charmed life for almost the rest of the half. Loach tipped over brilliantly from Lennon and Pavlyuchenko hit the bar when he was clean through one on one with Loach.
Unfortunately we then presented him with another one on one with Loach. Jenkins tripped Jenas right in front of the ref. It was such a clumsy challenge that from where we were sat it looked like a dive and the ref was duly abused for the rest of the match, however Sky never lies and it was a clear penalty. Loach nearly got it too. He went the right way but the shot was just too quick for him.
Had it been saved i think it would've been our night. But Spurs now had their tails up whereas we looked prepared to hang on for penalties if we got the chance.
Darren Bent ruined this by getting a lucky deflection and at 2-1 to Spurs you never felt we'd get back into it.
But this was a vast improvement on the Donnie result and all the more impressive considering the opposition. I thought if we played as we had on Saturday we'd get battered. Credit to BR that he put the things that went wrong on Saturday right. If we continue in the same vein things could be much better than the pessimistic bit of me was expecting.
I think its a shame we've got high flying Birmingham next up. I don't think we expect anything out of that points wise other than another improved display. Norwich on the other hand should hopefully be the game where we start to reap the results. Given they are our bottom 6 rivals its fairly important we do.
