Well, if Spurs ever wondered if they had a Guardian Angel, they do now – a Colombian one!

Getting a draw at Aston Villa is a decent result, especially as we never usually have any luck there. Of course, this changed due to Juan Pablo Angel’s penalty miss and own goal!

Spurs’ performance too seemed much better than normal, with Jermain Defoe looking more lively up front. Pity he didn’t hit the target more, as only two shots out of five were on target. Berbatov only had one shot, which was off target – not good!

Now thoughts move to Europe with possible defensive headaches: Michael Dawson suffered concussion at the weekend, Callum Davenport a broken nose, Ledley King with his knee problem, and Anthony Gardner continuing with his Lord Lucan impression. Hopefully two of the aforementioned will be available for Thursday’s match away at Besiktas, as they’re very much needed!

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After all this ridiculous criticism of Paul Robinson, I think it’s time people are reminded of why he’s England’s number ‘keeper!

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Tottenham Hotspur ‘keeper coach Pat Jennings has backed Paul Robinson after the media blamed Croatia’s second goal firmly on England’s number one.

The former Northern Irish international said: “There wasn’t much he could have done.

“What could he do if the ball hits a divot and bounces over his foot?”

He added: “We all know the game, if the ball pops up suddenly like that few goalkeepers would have done anything about it.

“Paul has cleared his lines thousands of times, so you have to make allowances for the ball bobbling over his foot in such circumstances.

“It was made to look more glaring because, as all keepers know, there is nobody behind to clear up any mistakes.

“But I wouldn’t put it down as a mistake, it was just a piece of very bad luck.”

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What a disaster, England losing 2-0 to Croatia, but poor performances are becoming the norm for the England football team. The second goal conceded was extremely unlucky. I felt really bad for Robbo – who made some fantastic saves – when the ball hit the divot and he ‘air kicked’. Thankfully it’s back to Premiership business this weekend!

On ‘Gary Neville’s own goal’, Robbo said: “It’s one of those things – there was nothing I could do. I think the ball bobbled where their goalkeeper took his goal-kicks in the first half.

“I don’t think anything went for us. We controlled the game in the first half without causing much of a threat – we exploited them in wide areas in the first half. But we didn’t offer much tonight – we didn’t cause them too much trouble and were not much of an attacking force. But it is not going to damage us – there’s a long way to go in this group.”

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Ledley King has withrawn from the England squad for the game against Croatia tomorrow as a ‘precautionary measure’.

The FA’s director of communications Adrian Bevington said: “While Ledley King didn’t suffer any reaction overnight to his knee, it has become clear that Ledley is not entirely comfortable.

“Therefore, as a precaution, the England medical staff and Steve McClaren felt it was in Ledley’s best interests not to fly and so he is out of the game.”

Obviously this isn’t good news, and yes we should be worried! Ledley is a key player for us. I think Callum Davenport is an able defender, but he’s no where near as good as Ledley yet. Anthony Gardner has been out injured a long time, so it’s doubtful he could make an instant return. So fingers crossed that Ledley will fully recover as soon as possible!

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Rather worrying news is that Ledley King experiences a ‘small reaction’ after playing games. This comes after he underwent a knee operation in the summer.

This doesn’t appear to affected the centre-half’s peformances, however, if the problem became serious, there must be a possibility that we could lose him at anytime during the season.

It seems though that England national manager Steve McClaren expects Ledley – as well as Rio Ferdinand – to be fit for Wednesday’s Euro 2008 qualifier against Croatia.

McClaren said: “Ledley King missed training but is also expected to train with the rest of the squad on Tuesday,”

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Very disappointing performance by England. Sure, Macedonia defended well and even at times looked good going forward, but the home side should definitely beat these kinds of teams.

One positive out of the game was Ledley King’s performance. He showed what we already know, that he’s a classy defender that is more than capable at international level. I just hope it doesn’t give Chelsea ideas after seeing him partner John Terry in the centre of defence.

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It has been confirmed that Teemu Tainio will be out of action for a while after having a hernia operation.

Spurs manager Martin Jol told the club’s official site: “It’s a blow for Teemu. He had the operation on Thursday and I would expect him to be out for at least four weeks, probably more.”

In other news, the Spurs official website has undergone a revamp. Seems a company called Bluhalo redeveloped the site – looks good, much better than the previous efforts.

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Just come across an interesting video on YouTube of Jermain Defoe’s penalty against Portsmouth – interesting because it’s from the fan’s perspective – literally!

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Today we were drawn in the UEFA Cup in a group with Bayer Leverkusen, Besiktas, Club Brugge and Dinamo Bucuresti. I think it is going to be very difficult to progress. That said, you can only beat teams put in front of you, and even though it is going to be hard, I’m sure we will make it tough for the opposition.

Spurs manager Martin Jol told the club’s site: “It is a difficult one because we were in the last pot so it was always going to be a hard group. Normally the top three teams would be big favourites, but there are no weaker teams in our group and we will not be viewed as such by the other clubs. It will be an exciting journey for us.

“Leverkusen is a club with a great history, Dimitar Berbatov played there and they reached the Champions League final in 2002. They will probably be favourites to win the group. Besiktas are not the strongest team in Turkey at the moment but what you are guaranteed over there is a passionate crowd.

“I think we have done okay, we have Club Brugge at home and if we can get a good result in that it would set us up for the difficult trip to Leverkusen.”

The fixtures for the matches are as follows;

Thursday 19 October – Besiktas (Turkey) (A)
Thursday 2 November – Club Brugge (Belgium) (H)
Thursday 23 November – Bayer 04 Leverkusen (Germany) (A)
Thursday 14 December – Dinamo Bucuresti (Romania) (H)

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