Burnley 1 Tottenham 1
As theelongated FA Cup third round continued last night (with matches still to playtonight as well), it is already beginning to feel more like a marathon than asprint for the teams involved, especially as many will have to do it all overagain before they can even contemplate navigating through the fourth round.Both Burnley and Spurs find themselves in that situation after playing out a1-1 draw at Turf Moor, which although it keeps them in the cup (for a littlelonger at least) is probably the last thing either manager really wanted as thefixtures tot up.
Burnley are in a dogfight at the wrong end of the PremierLeague and their main focus will surely be on attempting to stay in the divisionfor another season, after battling so hard to gain promotion in the firstplace. For Spurs, the targets seem slightly different as they contemplate thecontinuation of their journey into Europe in the Europa League and also havetheir eyes firmly focussed on a top four finish and Champions League Footballnext season.
Bothsides showed little real vitality to their play in a sub-standard first-halfyesterday, but showed signs of improvement after the break. Spurs were buoyedby the classy victory over Chelsea in the league, but had made seven changesfrom that match as manager Mauricio Pochettino looked to freshen his side up,so perhaps the lack of continuity explained the action on the pitch.
Notably heagain persevered with Roberto Soldado up front, as he attempts to get more outof his Spanish forward. Seeing that his side needed some spark up front,Pochettino had brought on Harry Kane after the break and his side responded bytaking the lead ten minutes in, when Ben Davies’ cross was fired home powerfullyby the Belgian, Nacer Chadli.
Kane almost added to the scoreline himself shortlyafter, but was denied by Tom Heaton in the Burnley goal.
Burnleymanager, Sean Dyche, decided that replacements of his own were necessary and oncame Sam Vokes. It proved to be aninspired choice as the Clarets found an equaliser through Vokes on 73 minutes witha neat side-foot finish, just reward for a player who has endured nine months outdue to a bad knee injury, with the game being only his second substituteappearance back since.
The striker has recovered from rupturing his cruciateligament back in March 2014 and is gradually being eased back into the firstteam, so the strike will give him hope that he can get back to the form he wasin before the untimely break in his career.
Asthe game edged towards a likely replay, Tottenham almost snatched it asChristian Eriksen’s strike was blocked and then Kane fired wide of the post,but the game ended in a draw.
Thewinners of the replay at White Hart Lane will now entertain fellow PremierLeague strugglers, Leicester City in the fourth round after the draw wascompleted yesterday.
