Charlton 0 Tottenham 1

Last updated : 28 August 2002 By David Robson
Simon Davies' early goal put Tottenham second behind north London rivals Arsenal in the Barclaycard Premiership table tonight.

As in Charlton's previous Premiership match at The Valley, against Chelsea, when he opened the scoring and was dismissed within 25 minutes, Paul Konchesky was in the thick of the action from the start. This time, a late challenge on Simon Davies earned the England Under-21 international a yellow card from referee Alan Wiley just 120 seconds in.

Davies, however, provided a telling intervention of his own as the Welshman put the visitors in front from a passing move of high quality. Left-back Christian Ziege, who had already had a vicious inswinging corner from the right fisted out at the near post by Dean Kiely, robbed Konchesky and played the ball inside to Davies, who linked in a crisp one-two with Teddy Sheringham, before striding into the area and firing into the roof of the net.

Such was the fast tempo of the contest, though, that Davies' goal was the only chance of the opening quarter-hour. Tottenham controlled the midfield in the opening half, however, against a Charlton side creaking in that department.

Having sold club captain Mark Kinsella to Aston Villa for £1million last Friday, the south-east London club lost his successor Graham Stuart to a knee ligament injury at Bolton the next day. And with Scott Parker's ankle injury proving increasingly problematic and Japan international Alex yet to complete his £2.3million move from Shimizu S-Pulse, manager Alan Curbishley was forced to use Radostin Kishishev on the right flank.

Kishishev did find room as the ball ran loose 20 yards out to let fly in the 16th minute, only for Kasey Keller to hold on low to his left. But Stuart's replacement endured a torrid spell of turning over possession as attack after Charlton attack broke down.

Yet it was the Bulgarian who seized upon Alan Curbishley's side's next chance as another long-range attempt, with the outside of his right boot, forced Keller to dive and hold to his right. Then, on the half-hour, as Charlton took a firmer grasp of the contest, Claus Jensen drifted a free-kick just wide. But recent Spurs signing Jamie Redknapp, scorer of the winning goal against Aston Villa at the weekend, was the most impressive midfielder on display. He watched one driven free-kick loop off the defensive wall for a corner before curling a speculative effort high and wide after a clever lay-off by Sheringham.

Charlton continued that trend in the opening match against Chelsea when the visitors made the most of Konchesky's controversial sending-off to come from two goals down to win.

Jason Euell found a free run into the area two minutes into the resumption, he was kept at bay by the quick-thinking Keller, who rushed from his line to dispossess him with his feet.
It was Tottenham, though, who looked more threatening and after successive Ziege corners caused mayhem in the Charlton area, Redknapp had his volley from a tight angle hacked out of the six-yard box by Euell. They felt aggrieved not to get the chance to double their lead from the spot on the hour as Davies burst clear.

Davies went down just inside the area under the challenge of the onrushing Kiely, who missed the ball and made minimal contact with the man. Referee Wiley adjudged that he had made the most of the situation and booked him for diving.Seconds later, Keller produced his stop of the night at the other end to turn aside a stinging drive from Euell.

The ever-alert Sheringham fashioned a chance for Matthew Etherington with 20 minutes left but the former Peterborough youngster sliced over the top from 10 yards. Charlton, meanwhile, failed to conjure another opportunity and the majority of the final 10 minutes served as keep-ball practice for the visitors

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Editors Opinion
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This was a poor performance by the Addicks who really missed Parker, Stuart and Kinsella. Im going to ask this every week buy why did Curbishley sell Kinsella in favour of Bart-Williams? Bart-Williams is a 1st Division player not a Premiership player, and to sell Kinsella instead of him was mad. For £1m i'd rather of keeped Kinsella.