SOCCER:THE PICTURES that hang from the walls around White Hart Lane provide plenty of reminders of the sort of days when young kids decide on which club they will follow for the rest of their lives.
There are shots of trophies being won and the wins being celebrated, with many of those involved ranking as some of the most talented players to play the game in England over the last half a century or so.
Somewhere along the line Shamrock Rovers captain Dan Murray caught the bug, although as he sat in the club’s press conference room and contemplated playing against the side that all of his family also followed when he was growing up in Cambridge, it was clear the fever had never exactly raged out of control.
The 29-year-old recalled getting into Spurs, “around the time that Gary Lineker was playing for them,” but he only ever went to a couple of games at the ground and couldn’t remember who he saw them play the last time he was here.
Anything other than a defeat for the Irish side tonight would surely make it unforgettable and not just for the big centre back who, like his team-mates, has already been involved in a few good nights on the road.
“Yeah, the win in Belgrade probably stands out,” he said, “but then because of the quality of the teams that we’ve been playing we’re probably better set up to stop other sides playing and then hit them on the counter-attack and we’ve built up a bit of knowledge at this stage on how to do that.”
The team’s manager, Michael O’Neill, has certainly proved himself capable of squeezing the very best out of his players when it has mattered away from home. It will matter this evening not, he suggested, because it will be the hardest of Shamrock Rovers’ games in the Europa League group stage campaign (he reckons the trip to Kazan might well rival this) but because, “this was the one that everyone was looking forward to”.
That’s bound to be particularly true for his players (Murray described it as a dream just to play at a Premier League ground) but some are going to have to miss out as O’Neill shifts once again from the front foot to the back due the serious step up in quality of opposition from Bray on Sunday.
Goalkeeper Ryan Thompson, with a shoulder problem, looks a major doubt for this evening having taken what appeared to be a very limited role in training last night, while Chris Turner could miss out as O’Neill changes the shape of his team.
Rohan Ricketts is sure to be involved at some stage but whether it is from the start remains to be seen, with the 28- year-old midfielder’s fitness a concern against a team containing as much pace out wide as the Spurs side is likely to.
What might swing it for Ricketts, though, is his composure on the ball, with O’Neill anxious his players don’t squander possession like so many sides when they make a step up like this.
“With the central midfielders, in particular,” he said, “we’ll be looking for them to look after the ball because if you can keep possession then it gives everybody in the side a chance to have a breather and we’ll probably need that from time to time.”
Conor McCormack seems bound to revert to his favoured holding midfield role as Craig Sives returns from injury and Pat Sullivan switches back to right back. Up front it will be just Gary Twigg again.
On the face of it, even the largely second string Spurs side that is expected to start should be more than capable of winning, given it will contain experienced internationals like Roman Pavlyuchenko, Vedran Corluka and Aaron Lennon, as well as some very well regarded young players like Kyle Walker and Andros Townsend.
Still Rovers will hope they can reproduce the sort of form on the road that has made them a match for other clubs that would have been regarded as strong favourites to win.
Harry Redknapp insists that if his side does slip up then over-confidence will not have been the problem.
“We’re not underestimating them,” he said yesterday. “Joe Jordan’s been over there to see them and he was very impressed, said they are a well organised side that works very hard. They went to Belgrade and won, didn’t they?”
And not too much, he says, should be read into his team selection.
“We’ve got a lot of lads coming back from injury and there’ll probably be seven or eight internationals out there. So it’s still a strong side.”
Nobody in Rovers’ camp is arguing about that but they are still hoping that on the night it’s not quite strong enough.
PROBABLE TEAMS:
TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR: Cudicini; Walker, Bassong, Corluka, Townsend; Lennon, Livermore, Pienaar, Rose; dos Santos, Pavlyuchenko.
SHAMROCK ROVERS:Brush; Sullivan, Sives, Murray, Stevens; McCormack; McCabe, Finn, Rice, Ricketts; Twigg.
Referee: Gediminas Mazeika (Lithuania).
Tottenham v Shamrock Rovers: Venue:White Hart Lane Kick-off:8.05 On TV:TV3, Channel 5
