Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Blackburn Rovers: Some Bad Misses And A Sub Before Pavlyuchenko Scores

Roman Palyuchenko has managed to badly miss the target twice before scoring a great goal, while Blackburn have already made a tactical sub.

The first Pavlyuchenko miss came in the 28th minute, when he was played through on goal into a one on one situation with Blackburn keeper Paul Robinson. It looked like Pavlyuchenko could have very easily rounded the keeper and tapped it into the back of the net, but he decided to attempt a difficult early shot with his right foot, blasting it over the bar.

Four minutes later, Spurs third penalty shout of the match was given. Though it appeared to be less legitimate than the penalty shout on which Luka Modric was booked for diving, Andre Marriner pointed to the spot when Jermaine Jenas went down in the area. Roman Pavlyuchenko stepped up to take the penalty and missed wide left.

Sam Allardyce made a tactical substitution in the 37th minute, bringing El-Hadji Diouf on for Michel Salgado. Pascale Chimbonda shifted from left back to right back, Gael Givet became the left back, and Blackburn shifted into a 4-5-1 formation.

Their tactical change did no short term good, though, as Spurs expanded their lead in the 42nd minute. Gareth Bale produced one of his trademark surging runs down the left hand side, drifting a cross towards the far post. Pavlyuchenko made a surging run from deep and like Bale on his header, the striker was completely unmarked. Also like Bale, he hit the target and scored, putting his team up 2-0.

Across the rest of England, besides the aforementioned Bolton goal, the matches are all scoreless.