Spurs and Villa share dull draw

Ginola received a warm reception at White Hart Lane

Tottenham Hotspur 0-0 Aston Villa

Spurs and Aston Villa entertained no-one with a lifeless, scoreless draw at White Hart Lane.

The only highlight was David Ginola's warm reception at the North London club where he did so much in the season of 1998/9.

The Frenchman managed a shot on target during his ten minutes on the pitch as substitute, but he could do little to change the flow of a very stale affair.

Mediocre

In truth, most would not expect much from a game between two teams with little to play for.

  Key moments

21 mins: Leonhardsen squanders chance

28 mins: Ferdinand misses open goal

62 mins: Young clears Vassell's shot from the line

80 mins: Ginola comes off the bench

During a mediocre first half, Tottenham had the better of the chances.

In the ninth minute, a floated cross from Stephen Carr on the right found Stephen Clemence and the young midfielder's header curled towards the top corner but into the grateful arms of David James.

Another header, this time from Les Ferdinand, curled over the crossbar from another Carr cross in the 14th minute.

Merse was absolutely brilliant today and should have scored.

  John Gregory
Villa manager

Seven minutes later, Oyvind Leonhardsen squandered a splendid opportunity when he broke through the Villa defence, only to allow James the chance to smother his close range shot, before Gareth Barry cleared.

But perhaps the most glaring miss of the half came when Ferdinand volleyed over from four yards after penetrating work by Simon Davies in the Villa penalty box.

For Villa, there was nothing even close to a chance on goal before the interval.

Intelligent

But the first real instance of a chance in the second half nearly saw the visitors move ahead.

We got no injuries and a clean sheet which is what we are striving for, so I'm happy

  Glenn Hoddle
Spurs manager

Ian Taylor's intelligent pass saw Paul Merson fire his shot at Neil Sullivan, but the rebound fell to Darius Vassell and his goalbound shot was kept out by Luke Young's backside.

Such was the paucity of play in the second half that the introduction of Ginola with ten minutes remaining for Steve Staunton brought the biggest roar of the day.

---

Tottenham: Sullivan, Young, Gardner, Doherty, Carr, Clemence, Sherwood, Leonhardsen, Davies, Korsten, Ferdinand. Subs: Walker, Thelwell, Etherington, Hillier, Piercy.

Aston Villa: James, Wright, Staunton, Barry, Southgate, Delaney, Boateng, Taylor, Merson, Dublin, Vassell. Subs: Joachim, Ginola, Stone, Samuel, Enckelman.

Referee: C Wilkes (Gloucester)