Tottenham v Aston Villa 12/10/96 3.00Tottenham (0) 1 Aston Villa (0) 0 FT Nielsen 61 Tottenham's Danish international Allan Nielsen struck to complete a day of firsts against Aston Villa, in a controversial match at White Hart Lane. The £1.65million midfielder's first goal for Spurs also provided their first home Premiership win since March - and the first over Villa for six years. And it left Villa keeper Mark Bosnich, playing his first game of the season, beaten and booked, and likely to face a misconduct charge from the Football Association. The Australian goalkeeper was shown a yellow card on a linesman's advice to referee Peter Jones after appearing to give a Nazi salute to furious Spurs fans behind his goal. 
The incident happened after Bosnich had been taunted for an incident involving the London club's former striker Jurgen Klinsmann in a match during the season before last. The German was carried off unconscious in that game following Bosnich's reckless challenge. It had looked like being a much quieter day for Bosnich today even though Spurs had Chris Armstrong back from injury to boost their attack. The keeper's first-half action was restricted to gathering a tame Teddy Sheringham header and holding on to a misdirected defensive clearance by Ian Taylor which threatened to sneak under the bar. Sheringham, booked later for a foul, kept Bosnich on his toes with a header that was just too high. But with Yugoslav star Sasa Curcic a constant menace to the home defence with his determined running, Villa were in charge until Nielsen struck. The goal came in the 61st minute when Armstrong, still clearly not fully fit, still managed to set up Ruel Fox for a cross from the right which Nielsen forced past stop-gap defender Taylor before firing home. 
Within the space of the next two minutes, Sheringham and Armstrong could have had further Spurs goals with steadier finishing. But Villa, without injured Gareth Southgate and his deputy Riccardo Scimeca who reported sick, finished the game with a flourish and almost snatched a point. Dwight Yorke, who had been well marshalled for most of the match by Sol Campbell, fired just over. Right at the death, Steve Staunton's low drive took the paint of the outside of a post, but it is now Villa's seventh game running without a win. 
Tottenham: Walker, Howells, Calderwood, Fox, Nielsen (Nethercott, 90), Sheringham, Wilson, Campbell, Carr, Sinton (Edinburgh, 38), Armstrong. Subs not used: Baardsen, Austin, Fenn. Booked: Sheringham. Aston Villa: Bosnich, Staunton, Taylor, Draper (Tiler, 79), Milosevic (Johnson, 79), Yorke, Wright, Nelson, Ehiogu, Curcic, Townsend (Joachim, 79). Subs not used: Oakes, Farrelly. Booked: Bosnich, Taylor. Attendance: 32,847. Referee: P Jones (Loughborough). |
