Spurs under 23’s 1-4 Brighton & Hove Albion: (match report)

After suffering a disappointing 4-0 defeat to Blackburn Rovers earlier in the week, our under 23’s looked to respond when they took on Brighton at the AMEX stadium on Friday night, in their latest PL2 game. Wayne Burnett’s side put in a decent first half performance and after some good early passing moves Spurs took the lead through the potent Rodel Richards. However, Ryan Longman cancelled Spurs’ opener before halftime. I don’t know exactly what it was but Spurs seemed to fade away during the second half, in similar fashion to the Blackburn game. Brighton hit three goals without reply and Spurs lacked urgency and were unable to mount any sort of fight back, as they lost 4-1. Wayne Burnett’s side lined up in their usual 4-2-3-1 formation on Friday night as Belgian goalkeeper Jonathan De Bie was handed a rare start in goal. A back four consisting of Jubril Okedina, TJ Eyoma, Luis Binks and Tariq Hinds lined up in front of him. Captain Jamie Bowden and Paris Maghoma partnered up in central midfield while Phoenix Patterson and Shilow Tracey operated out on the flanks, either side of CAM Tashan Oakley-Boothe. Rodel Richards led the line for Spurs. Brighton got the game underway on a cool evening down on the south coast. After knocking it about well during the opening stages of the game, Tottenham winger Phoenix Patterson whipped an inviting cross into the Brighton box. However, the Spurs mans delivery was just missed by striker Rodel Richards before being gathered by Brighton goalkeeper Hugo Keto. After fullback Tariq Hinds had lost possession Brighton winger Ryan Longman darted into the Spurs penalty area, however, Hinds recovered well to block Longman’s resulting effort on goal. Jamie Bowden headed behind Jordan Davies’s corner kick before Luis Binks partially cleared Ryan Longman’s cross, before Jonathan De Bie gathered the ball. England under 19 international Paris Maghoma had a shot blocked by Antef Tsoungui before Jamie Bowden had a powerful low effort saved by Hugo Keto. Luis Binks continued his impressive start to the game by cutting out a good pass from Jordan Davies which was intended for Brighton striker Bojan Radulovic.

A couple of minutes later Spurs came close to taking the lead through Rodel Richards after the Spurs striker struck the crossbar. After Tariq Hinds had passed the ball to Rodel Richards inside the Brighton box, the Spurs striker turned around before powering an effort against Hugo Keto’s crossbar. A couple of minutes later Rodel Richards received Paris Maghoma’s pass before sublimely turning around Brighton captain Warren O’Hora before forcing a save out of Hugo Keto from his low effort. Spurs took the lead in the 28th minute of the game through none other than Rodel Richards. After Tashan Oakley-Boothe carried the ball well down the right flank the attacking midfielder then slipped a clever pass through to Rodel Richards down the right side of the Brighton box, Richards kept his composure in front of goal before calmly slotting the ball past Hugo Keto and into the bottom left hand corner of the goal, 1-0. Phoenix Patterson had a cross cleared away by Warren O’Hora before a good Spurs move almost resulted in them doubling their lead. After Maghoma passed the ball to Hinds the right back played a quick one two with Richards inside the Brighton box before shooting just wide of Hugo Keto’s goal. Luis Binks nodded over Phoenix Patterson’s cross before Brighton unexpectedly drew level. After receiving Jordan Davies’s pass down the right hand side of the Brighton box Ryan Longman let fly on his right foot. Longman’s powerful effort deflected off of Tariq Hinds before looping up and over Jonathan De Bie and into the back of the goal, 1-1. After receiving Jamie Bowden’s pass down the left side of the Brighton box Shilow Tracey whipped the ball across the face of Hugo Keto’s goal, before the referee Sam Allison sounded his whistle for half time. Spurs got the second half underway. Jubril Okedina had a cross gathered by Hugo Keto a couple of minutes before Brighton took the lead for the first time in the game. After coming inside from the left flank Jack Leahy whipped the ball into the Spurs box where he managed to pick out Danny Cashman who just directed the ball past Jonathan De Bie on the volley, 1-2.

After Rodel Richards had just missed Phoenix Patterson’s whipped cross inside the Brighton box, the ball came to Paris Maghoma who had made a run towards the back post but he could only volley the ball just over the crossbar, much to his disappointment. Spurs tried to respond again. After Phoenix Patterson’s cross was controlled by Rodel Richards inside the Brighton box the Spurs striker had a shot blocked by Warren O’Hora, before Tashan Oakley-Boothe had a shot on goal blocked by the same player. After receiving Danny Cashman’s pass down the right flank Ryan Longman darted past Tariq Hinds before emphatically firing the ball into the top right hand corner of Jonathan De Bie’s goal. Jubril Okedina headed Phoenix Patterson’s corner kick wide before Jamie Bowden had an effort blocked by Warren O’Hora before Phoenix Patterson had a cross gathered by Hugo Keto. A good Spurs move resulted in Tariq Hinds passing the ball to Paris Maghoma who played a one two with Rodel Richards before shooting wide. After receiving Marc Leonard’s pass Ryan Longman darted down the right side of the Brighton box before firing a low effort just wide of Jonathan De Bie’s goal. Spurs brought off Phoenix Patterson and Jamie Bowden for Dilan Markanday and Kion Etete before Brighton netted their fourth goal of the game. After Danny Cashman aggressively brought Paris Maghoma to the ground he passed the ball to Ryan Longman down the right side of the Spurs box. Longman squared the ball for substitute Lorent Tolaj to tap past Jonathan De Bie and into the back of the net, 1-4. Hugo Keto gathered Dilan Markanday’s whipped effort on goal before Maurizio Pochettino came onto replace Shilow Tracey. Pochettino nodded a deflected free kick wide of goal from Dilan Markanday before Kion Etete was shown a yellow card for barging into Brighton goalkeeper Hugo Keto and then squaring up to Brighton’s Romaric Yapi. Rodel Richards flicked on Dilan Markanday’s free kick before Maurizio Pochettino had a late shot blocked by Warren O’Hora, before the referee blew his whistle for full time, bringing to an end a disappointing night of football for Spurs.

Player reviews: 

• Jonathan De Bie: The Spurs goalkeeper didn’t make a single save on the night and he would have been disappointed to be beaten at his near post for Ryan Longman’s second goal of the game. 
• Jubril Okedina: The 18 year old put in a decent shift at right back. Okedina made some timely interceptions, and he defended relatively well against Brighton winger Jack Leahy. 
• TJ Eyoma: The RCB may not have had his greatest game but he was good in the air, and he did make some good defensive interventions.
• Luis Binks: The LCB was one of Spurs’ better players on the night. Binks did well to quell the threat of Brighton’s bullish target man Bojan Radulovic who tried his very best to bully young Binks. However, the England under 19 international stood tall and he managed to cut out a couple of dangerous Brighton attacks.
• Tariq Hinds: The left back protected his side of the pitch relatively well and he made some good blocks.
• Jamie Bowden: The CDM carried the ball well and he made some well timed interceptions. Bowden was one of Spurs’ better players on the night and he helped to keep things ticking over nicely in the middle of the park.
• Paris Maghoma: The RCM made some intelligent runs into the Brighton penalty area, and he was involved in some nice link up with the lively Rodel Richards.
• Phoenix Patterson: The right winger would switch flanks with Shilow Tracey during the first half but he struggled a little bit to get into the game despite his tremendous work rate. Patterson did however, whip some excellent crosses into the danger zone. 
• Tashan Oakley-Boothe: Although the attacking midfielder wasn’t really involved in the game in the final third, Oakley-Boothe did do well to set up Rodel Richards for his goal.
• Shilow Tracey: The left winger went on a number of good surging runs during the first half.
• Rodel Richards: My man of the match, see below.
• Dilan Markanday: Markanday came off the bench to go on a couple of decent attacking forays down the right hand side of the pitch.
• Kion Etete: The second half substitute opened up options for Spurs.
• Maurizio Pochettino: The left wingers touch was good and he was tidy with the ball during his time on the pitch.

My man of the match: Rodel Richards. The 19 year old centre forwards movement and many well timed runs were excellent on the night. The skilful Richards went on many a good mazy run. Furthermore, the Lewisham born striker struck the crossbar before going onto score a well taken goal. The first year pro threatened the Brighton defence throughout the match.

Brighton & Hove Albion: Keto, Yapi, Furlong (Leonard 68), Spong, Tsoungui, O’Hora (c), Longman, Davies, Radulovic (Tolaj 74), Cashman (Wilson 88), Leahy. Substitutes (not used): McGill, Freestone.

Spurs: De Bie, Okedina, Hinds, Bowden (c) (Etete 79), Eyoma, Binks, Patterson (Markanday 73), Maghoma, Richards, Oakley-Boothe, Tracey (Pochettino 84). Substitutes (not used): Oluwayemi, Lyons-Foster.

Goals: Brighton – Longman 37, 62, Longman 48, Tolaj 80; Spurs – Richards 28.

Yellow cards: Brighton – Leahy 85, Yapi 87; Spurs – Etete 87, Eyoma 90+4.

Referee: Sam Allison.

Venue: Amex Stadium, Brighton.

Spurs under 23’s statistics: 

Goals: Rodel Richards – 2

Troy Parrott – 2

Kazaiah Sterling – 2

Harvey White – 2

Tashan Oakley-Boothe – 1

Shilow Tracey – 1

Paris Maghoma – 1

Phoenix Patterson – 1

Armando Shashoua – 1

Dilan Markanday – 1

Assists: Shilow Tracey – 5

Tashan Oakley-Boothe – 2

Jamie Bowden – 1

Tariq Hinds – 1

Paris Maghoma – 1

Kazaiah Sterling – 1

Dilan Markanday – 1

Armando Shashoua -1

Clean sheets: Brandon Austin – 1