Defoe bags brace in Royals rout
Jermain Defoe, right, scored two goals as Tottenham beat Reading
Jermain Defoe scored a brace to hand Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas his first win in charge as his side recorded a 3-1 victory at Reading.
Defoe put Spurs ahead in the first half before two goals in three minutes secured the points for the Portuguese in the second period. First Gareth Bale's fortuitous shot looped over Alex McCarthy to put Tottenham 2-0 up and Defoe secured victory for the Londoners by slipping the ball past the Royals stopper after a mazy dribble.
Reading rarely threatened Tottenham's goal and Brad Friedel's only concern was picking the ball out of the net in the last minute when Hal Robson-Kanu scored a consolation.
The hosts thought they should have had a penalty in the 11th minute when the ball struck Kyle Walker's arm as he jumped for a Danny Guthrie free-kick, but referee Howard Webb ruled that Alex Pearce had fouled the right-back.
The penalty call aside, Reading were struggling to make an impression on the game. The seemingly inevitable opener came after 17 minutes when Gylfi Sigurdsson sliced open the Reading defence to find Aaron Lennon, who cut back for Defoe to finish from 15 yards.
Spurs pushed for a quick second and Defoe brilliantly took down a long, raking pass from the excellent Kyle Naughton to slip past two defenders but his toe-poke went wide.
Royals goalkeeper Alex McCarthy, making his top-flight debut, almost gifted the visitors a second when he dallied on the ball on the edge of his box.
Defoe pinched it off the 22-year-old and squared to Sigurdsson but Pearce rushed back to clear the ball off the line.
Spurs moved 2-0 up with 20 minutes to go through Bale. Walker skilfully slipped past two defenders and pulled back for the Welshman, whose scuffed shot looped over McCarthy into the net.
Any hopes Reading had of a comeback were extinguished two minutes later when a brilliant solo goal from Defoe killed off the match well before Robson-Kanu's close-range finish in stoppage time.
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He has always been let down for England by the Manager who has been in charge! Always the one to be left out.....evan when Michael Owen was prefered to himhe should have been first choice,much more skill and technique! He needs to be told he is first choice and then we have some player!!
A relief to win, but this wasn't a top 4 team we were playing!
I just was never comfortable with the performance. The slick passing triangles that we saw last season were missing. Far too much long ball to a lone striker (he had a good game with a few great touches) who will undoubtedly be handled a lot better by the top defenders. No real runs from Bale, or Walker (and limited from Lennon). And then to cap it all another loss of concentration at the end to give away a goal. That has been a fault with Spurs for a long while. It must be eliminated. (the commentator said during the game that if games were for 80 mins and not ninety, then Spurs would have 7 points and not 2........don't know if that is correct, but I wouldn't be suprised. I have no doubt that if games were 80 or even 85 mins long last season we would have qualified for CL)
But it was a win.
