Tottenham Wins Despite Burnley's Impressive Show

By: Peri Witny | Posted: 12th January 2009

During the first-leg semifinal match between Tottenham and Burnley, substitute Jamie O'Hara succeeded in turning the tables in favor of Tottenham by scoring one goal and setting up 2 others leading his defending League Cup champion team to a 4-1 win on Tuesday, 6 Feb.

The Hotspurs team put on a poor show in the first half of the game when they trailed the Burnley team from the 15th minute. However, Harry Redknapp, their coach, had David Bentley called in at half time due to his ineffective presence in the field and sent O'Hara in his place. This proved to be a good decision as O'Hara, who plays at midfield, hit a corner kick that Michael Dawson scored with by shooting it into the goal with a header. Shortly afterwards, 5 minutes to be precise, O'Hara scored by kicking the ball into the goal through goal-keeper, Brian Jenseng's, legs.

Roman Paylyuchenko of the Spurs scored the third goal in the second half of the game. Just a few moments later, Michael Duff, the defender on Burnley's team sent the ball rolling into his own goal with a header intended to block a free kick by O'Hara.

Coach Redknapp made his displeasure with his team's performance in the first half known by telling the press he did not see his team winning at all in the first half but after he had a talk with them and "sorted out a few of them" things started to look up for his team.

Though Tottenham had been struggling to survive in the English Premier League this season, yet this victory has lifted up it's chances of making it to the finals to be held on March 1 against either of the two soccer teams of Manchester United and Derby. These two will be playing the first leg of their semifinal against one another on Wednesday, 7 Jan. The second leg won't start until two weeks later.

Burnley beat Chelsea, Arsenal and Fulham to make it so far in the Premier League. They appeared in full form during the first half of the match and were more impressive than the 4 times winner of the trophy, Tottenham who kept struggling to get into the game. The premier league soccer scores can be quite unpredictable and despite having lost the game, Burnley manager, Owen Coyle, vowed to stay positive.

Burnley played a much more impressive game, constantly threatening Tottenham specially through the right wing. Tottenham's players, on the other hand, made many mistakes one wouldn't expect from a premier league team. Bentley, playing out of his position, put on a poor performance; Aaron Lennon's maneuvers were, at best, erratic; Gareth Blake had a shaky defense and none of the strikers could impress with their openings.

Tottenham was jeered by it's fans at half time and Redknapp could relate to their feelings as his team struggled to get back into the game. Things however changed with the timely replacement of Bentley with O'Hara who turned the tables in Tottenham's favor turning the jeers into jubilation. Having assisted Dawson in his goal, O'Hara went on to hit it into the goal post after collecting a header from Luka Modric. Clark Carlisle let Paylyuchenko breeze past his defense who scored with a low shot past Jensen.

Things were made even worse for Burnley after Duff's unsuccessful attempt at properly directing a headed clearance making it one of the worse soccer goals as it was scored against his own team.

However, it was Eagles who got some good chances at the beginning of the game and also helped Paterson to score. Eagles had no problem getting past Bale to cross and team-mate Paterson tapped in past Gomes.
Despite losing 4-1, it was a football game Burnley fans will find hard to forget.

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Tags: few moments, displeasure, soccer teams, manchester united, english premier league, spurs, goal keeper, fulham