Tonight:
5°c
There's no place like home as Gomes struggles in a game of chants
Tom Collomosse24 Nov 2008
Tottenham 1
Blackburn 0
When the Tottenham fans greeted their former goalkeeper Paul Robinson with lengthy applause and chants of "England's number one", Heurelho Gomes must have felt the loneliest man in north London.
Robinson left Spurs for Blackburn in the summer after a difficult 2007/08 season and was replaced by Gomes, but the home supporters welcomed the 29-year-old with warmth as they paid tribute to his four years at the club.
Robinson responded by throwing his gloves into the South Stand after a solid display, while Gomes, despite keeping a clean sheet and finishing on the winning side, was left to reflect on another patchy performance.
The raucous cheering which accompanied every routine save or catch the Brazilian made betrayed the lack of confidence the fans have in him. For now, Spurs manager Harry Redknapp will persist with Gomes and the clean sheet should make the former PSV Eindhoven man feel better about himself. Yet Redknapp could be forgiven for wishing that it were Robinson, rather than Gomes, who was Spurs' senior keeper.
The arrival of Tony Parks as goalkeeping coach should aid Gomes, who has looked lost this season when asked to deal with high balls.
Parks replaces Hans Leitert, and the 45-year-old, whose penalty save handed Spurs victory in the 1984 UEFA Cup Final against Anderlecht, has been given perhaps the most important role at the club, certainly in the short-term.
Redknapp said: "Gomes is an intelligent guy. He could hear the crowd singing to Robinson and it is not easy. But he did well. I was pleased with him. He did drop one [cross], but it didn't cost us.
"It is important that he kept a clean sheet. He has worked with Tony Parks, who has spent time talking to him and encouraging him and doing some good work on the training ground. I think Tony will be important to him.
"Guus Hiddink, the coach of Russia, has worked with him at PSV. Hiddink is no fool and he says Gomes is one of the best keepers in the world. When your confidence is low, it is very difficult."
Gomes was rescued by team-mate Vedran Corluka in the sixth minute after he spilled a corner from Morten Gamst Pedersen in the six-yard box.
Luckily for Spurs, the Croatian defender was the first to react, clearing the ball behind for a corner.
Three minutes later, Spurs scored the only goal of the game when Aaron Lennon robbed Martin Olsson before darting into the penalty area and feeding Roman Pavlyuchenko, whose precise finish from 15 yards gave Robinson no chance.
While Redknapp will still be concerned about Gomes, he was delighted with Lennon's display, which helped Spurs move out of the bottom three and into 15th place. Indeed, left-back Olsson simply could not handle the tricky Lennon's pace and skill and it was not a surprise to see the Swede sent off after 39 minutes for two bookings - both awarded for fouls on the winger.
Pavlyuchenko's form represents another reason for Redknapp to smile.
After a difficult start to life in the Premier League following his £14million summer move from Spartak Moscow, the Russian has now scored six goals in only nine starts, with five of those strikes coming during Redknapp's reign.
The manager's balance sheet reads played eight, won six, drawn one, lost one, which is a hugely impressive start to his White Hart Lane career, and vindicates fully chairman Daniel Levy's decision to axe Juande Ramos and his coaching staff and replace them with the 61-year-old.
Reader views (14)
We were also singing lots of songs supporting Gomes, why didn't the article mention that? Give him time, he'll be a legend!
- Jay, London, 25/11/2008 10:16
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Gomes will get better if more players spoke to him. He's been carrying an injury since before the stoke game but levy and harry insist he must play. If he was welcomed at the club and made to feel part of the team instead of having the piss taken out of him from the bench then maybe he'll gain in confidence!?
- Dave, essex, 24/11/2008 20:43
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We need to lay off Gomes if we're to expect him to perform better. He is now our number one so let's get behind him and applaude his work and back this guy. Robbo is now with B'burn let's move on and focus on what we have
- Danny Azzo, New York, USA, 24/11/2008 18:54
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although robbo served us well he also made some dreadful errors, its time us spurs fans got behind gomes.the park lane dont help with the ironic cheering everytime gomes does manage to hold on to ,a cross,shot etc.whilst he wears the spurs shirt i for one will get behind him.perhaps if we worship him in the way we do our old keeper he may just get the confidence he is obviously lacking .bye the way good luck robbo
- Stantheman, herts,uk, 24/11/2008 17:54
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If you was Harry who would you bring in as players when the market opens.
- Carl, Lincoln, England, 24/11/2008 17:11
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It's THE PARK LANE and he got a great response from all corners of the ground. where as Gomes is a clown and we were lucky not to concede yet another goal from another basic error.
- Steve Newill, Braintree Essex, 24/11/2008 15:37
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gomes is slowly geting better and i think will become a good keeper 4 us given the chance.
it was funny yesterday when we were all cheering every save he made and singing "we love u gomes, we do"
but it was great robbo got a great reception, and i will never 4get robbo for 1 away game in europe last year when b4 the game robbo went over to the travelling spurs fans and started off some songs on his own! including "we hate arsenal, n we hate arsenal" PURE LEDGEND.........
- Paul, london, uk, 24/11/2008 14:14
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The chanting for the goalkeepers was actually pretty equal. Robinson, who along with King & Keane, always got the most support from the South Stand, was always going to have that reception, and as he was in front of the South Stand in the 1st half, he obviously got it first. In the second half Gomes, for the first time this season really, had his name sung and even smiled and waved when "Brazil's number one" was sung. All in all they both got the respect they deserve.
For a fella who's low on confidence Gomes had a good game, and was clearly feeling a lot more relaxed as the game went on. A few more like that and he'll be fine. Let's not forget, he was good enough to knock us out of the UEFA cup last year so he must have something going for him. COYS
- Just, London, 24/11/2008 13:54
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I could hear the jeering of Gomes, but I could also here the cheering of his name. Ok, so most of it was jeers, but it's no like he was getting booed at every touch. No surpirse that the press and pundits who were slating him less than a week ago are jumping to his defence this week. How about you all ignore spurs and we'll quietly go about the business of moving further up the table. Up the spurs, up the Gomes!
- Stu, London, 24/11/2008 13:42
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The Park Lane end gave great support to both Robinson AND Gomes, but I notice you conveniently ignored the fact that they gave Gomes plenty of vocal support when he was defending that end in the 2nd half. I suppose it wouldn't have sat too well with the biased opinion you were trying to impose.
- Tom, London, 24/11/2008 13:37
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This match showed us the mistake of having sold Robinson for £3.5m & replacing him with the error prone Gomes at £8.5m - I am certain Harry will sign another keeper at the first opportunity. Its okay against poor teams like Blackburn, but if we are serious about breaking into the top 4 next seson, we will need 2 competant keepers, 2 left-backs, a central defender & 2 forwards.
- Rob Hotspurs, South London, 24/11/2008 12:18
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we have a manager where all behind as fans
now lets show the team where all behind them as players too... poor gomes.... yes hes made mistakes and they say you learn by ur mistakes...and at the end of the day he's still our number 1 keeper.. he was highly rated before he came to us and we paid alot of money for him. so why slate the poor bloke.yes we all feel bad when where loseing and basic mistakes are happening. but we shouldnt just blame 1 person.. we havnt see the best of him yet and its really what every true spurs fan wants
... so get behind the guy and the team and the manager.. and lets show them bloody gunners and the world a few things or two
COME ON THE SPURS
- Carl, lincoln england, 24/11/2008 12:13
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I was there and yeah, people were cherring at the saves. Robbo was popular at spurs for most of his time, it's nice to welcome him back. Would've been pretty miffed if i was a blackburn fan though, he was loapping up spurs fans.
But yes, Gomes was getting loads of support. As long as he stays on track he'll be popular at WHL.
- Stevo, London, 24/11/2008 11:25
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While this is true as far as the excellent reception Paul Robinson recieved, (which by the way was excellent). Heurelho Gomes was also cheered both during the game and after it with chants of "There's only one Gomez" to which he applauded the crowd and his appreciation was warmly greeted.
- Richard Grant, Brentwood Esses, 24/11/2008 10:13
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