Niko Kranjcar bagged a brace as Tottenham cruised into the fourth
round of the FA Cup after a 4-0 win over Peterborough at White Hart
Lane.
There is far too much FA Cup tradition at White Hart Lane for
anyone to take the old competition anything but seriously. And
Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp got the club's 2010 challenge
rolling when he sent out his strongest possible side to steamroller
Championship strugglers Peterborough.
Two goals from Kranjcar, the inevitable strike from Jermain
Defoe and a late, late penalty from Robbie Keane were the vital
statistics in a one-sided cup tie. But it was the businesslike way
Spurs went about their work which suggested that a ninth FA cup
triumph is in their sights this season, even if they do also have
the little matter of trying to finish in the top four in the
Premier League.
They say sport is all about what is in the mind and the man
in charge of the White Hart Lane big screen did his bit for the
cause when he played the video of Tottenham's recent 9-1 victory
against Wigan as the Peterborough players ran out for their
warm-up.
Psychological blows do not come much heavier than that. The
big question was which Peterborough would turn up - the one which
went 4-0 down at home to Cardiff in the first half last weekend or
the one which produced one of the comebacks of the season to draw
4-4 in the second?
The answer was a bit of both. Mark Cooper's side scrapped and
fought and matched Tottenham for sheer industry. But where quality
was concerned the gulf was as wide as the Seven Sisters Road.
Tottenham were all over their opponents from the first
whistle. Defoe might have put them two up in the first 10 minutes,
just failing to connect from close range and then somehow managing
to volley over from little more than a yard after Luka Modric's
shot had ballooned off a defender.
That first half was little more than one-way traffic,
Tottenham out-passing and out-thinking their opponents. If it had
not been for Peterborough goalkeeper Joe Lewis then the match would
have been over well before the interval.
He got down smartly to smother a Tom Huddlestone free-kick
but the pick of a bunch of saves was an instinctive fingertip
effort which saw him deflect a ferocious Kranjcar right-footer onto
the crossbar.
The breakthrough, however, had to come and when it did it
owed everything to the inventive Croatian midfield connection.
Modric is easing his way back after recovering from his broken leg
earlier this season and his quality could be crucial in Tottenham's
bid to break into the Premier League top four. It was his tidy work
and precision pass which found Kranjcar out on the left. Kranjcar,
a £2.5million bargain from Portsmouth in the summer, simply
smashed a right-footed shot past Lewis.
It meant Peterborough had to come out and play - a dangerous
ploy for any side at White Hart Lane these days. And Tottenham
exploited the extra space after 56 minutes when the lively Keane
found Gareth Bale, whose cross from the left was prodded home from
close range by Kranjcar. Not that Peterborough folded.
Indeed, they would have reduced the arrears after 65 minutes
but for a spectacular flying save by goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes, who
tipped a savage shot from striker Craig Mackail-Smith over the
crossbar.
After 69 minutes, however, Spurs increased their lead. Again
it was set up by Bale, but this time it was Defoe who got on the
end of his cross to fire the third. It prompted something of an
unusual occurrence at White Hart Lane these days - a sighting of
Russia striker Roman Pavlyuchenko, who has spent most of the season
on the substitutes' bench but who came on to replace Defoe.
He might have scored, too, but had the ball stabbed off his
toe at the crucial moment. The Spurs rout was completed in stoppage
time when Keane slotted home a penalty after substitute Danny Rose
had been brought down by Chris Whelpdale.
