Fulham v Spurs: An opinion

Phew! Along with a clutch of new signings, it seems that Sanchez has also bought a handful of 'Get out of Jail Free' cards if yesterday is anything to go by. But while it was a fantastic, pulsating, thrilling end to a rollercoaster ride of match that left us all on a high, it's important not to let that colour our judgement of the overall performance.

For large parts of the game we were simply played off the park.

Our midfield and defence were ripped apart in the first half and, to be honest, we were fortunate not to concede more than two. The first 20 minutes had echoes of last year's nightmare cup final exit to the North Londoners last year and the Cottage resounded to boos. If Spurs hadn’t squandered a couple of golden opportunities we’d have been dead and buried.

Niemi - our third goalkeeper in five league games - was simply awful; particularly in the first half. Fumbling a cross and then dropping the subsequent corner at the foot of Kaboul who rattled in number one was the first sign that all was not quite right with the man at the back.

His litany of disasters included failing to command his defenders; sticking rigidly on his goal line when he should have been closing strikers down and smothering their shots, and punching the ball like a toddler. Quite frankly, it looked as if he would concede every time someone took a shot. Although he did redeem himself to a certain degree in the second half with a couple of fine saves, the damage had already been done.

In midfield we lost the physical battle, but then again it wasn’t one we were ever likely to win without the likes of Diop and Brown in the fight. In fact, it looked like a scene out of Gulliver’s Travels when the waif-like Smertin was going up against Kaboul, Huddlestone, etc, etc.

It was also bizarre to see David 'God' Healy sitting on the bench when the lad can't stop scoring for club or country. I agree we needed Dempsey on the park, for his physical presence if nothing else, but Healy should have been accommodated in the formation as well.

However, there was one overwhelming positive to be taken away from the Cottage yesterday: team spirit. For a group of players to fight back from twice being two goals behind to salvage a goal was simply fantastic. Not knowing when they were beaten and defying the odds was the trademark of the Wimbledon team in the 1980s that Sanchez was part of and he seems to have instilled that same sense of belief in this crop of players. Chucking on two extra strikers in the last part of the game was also an inspired move so hats off to Lawrie on that one.

No-one could argue that we were very fortunate to get anything from yesterday, but even Alan Hansen on Match of the Day said it was time things turned in our favour: “If you have watched the first four or five games of the season; if any side deserved a bit of luck it was Fulham.”

* I will be back on later with my player rankings and a round-up of how the media saw our match