CarlingNet - No 1 for Match Reports

Tottenham v West Ham 02/11/96 3.00

Tottenham               (0) 1 West Ham                (0) 0 FT
Armstrong 67

One defensive blunder can often decide a disappointing game and this proved to be the case at White Hart Lane.

Slaven Bilic, normally a tower of strength in the West Ham defence, allowed a harmless looking through ball from Allan Nielsen, in the 67th minute, to go through to goalkeeper Ludek Miklosko.

Unfortunately for West Ham, Miklosko was nowhere near the ball and Chris Armstrong nipped in between Bilic and the keeper and scored from close in.

Miklosko managed to get a foot to the ball but could not prevent it from going into the net.

Bilic then received a nasty knock and moved up in the closing stages and almost made amends for his blunder in the last minute when he crashed a left-footed shot from outside the box against the inside of the post with Ian Walker beaten.

This was undoubtedly a game to forget with a particularly poor first half.

Spurs were so lacking in initiative that they looked like an away side concentrating on defence rather than going forward.

This allowed West Ham to dominate the possession in the second half but they had only two clear chances.

After 57 minutes Michael Hughes slipped the ball into the box, Iain Dowie flicked it on and Hugo Porfirio was left with only Walker to beat. But his shot was weak and Walker was able to fall gratefully on to the ball.

Then after Armstrong had scored Spurs were content to fall back and allow West Ham to attack almost at will.

Paulo Futre was brought on for John Moncur and shortly after Rory Allen became the only booking in the match when he brought Julian Dicks down from behind.

Porfirio had then had West Ham's second good chance of the half when he slipped past Sol Campbell with six minutes to go but delayed his shot and was robbed by a superb tackle as Campbell raced back.

Spurs had three points and manager Gerry Francis must be grateful for that although he could hardly be happy at his team's performance.