Delighted Jol invokes spirit of 91
Spurs crushed Fulham 4-0 at Craven Cottage to reach the quarter-final of the competition, with Robbie Keane and Dimitar Berbatov both scoring twice.
It was their first win over a top-flight team since St. Stephen’s Day and Dutchman Jol hopes his side can maintain their impressive form in cup competition this season.
“It will be very important for us to do something special this year,” he said. “They had a similar year in 1991 under Terry Venables, they only had three wins in the last 25 games but they won the FA Cup. If we can do that it would be a dream.”
He added: “At Spurs it is different. If you go out at the semi-final (stage) of an FA Cup or UEFA Cup they will be disappointed but it is important for us to compete in these competitions.”
Keane opened the scoring in the sixth minute, latching on to a Mido flick before firing a volley past Jan Lastuvka.
He doubled the lead with 22 minutes left with a carbon copy of his first, maintaining his record of scoring in every round of the competition.
“A bit simple but that is how you can score goals as well,” said Jol.
Jol was delighted with his team matching Fulham physically, adding: “They have very physical players but we did very well and defended well.
“We lost the initiative in the second half but luckily enough we got the second goal.”
He added: “You can have all the qualities in the world but you have to compete against these types of sides.”
However, Fulham also had their chances and Paul Robinson was forced to save spectacularly from Brian McBride and Moritz Volz as well as when Mido almost put through his own goal.
“He tells the other players all the time that he wants a clean sheet,” Jol added. “Everyone saw he is a very good goalkeeper.”
Fulham boss Chris Coleman described the defeat as “unacceptable”.
Despite previous controversy with referee Mark Halsey, Coleman had no complaints with Vincenzo Montella’s sending off for a clash with Keane in the dying moments of the match.
“Vincenzo raised his elbow and swung out, you can’t raise your elbow,” said Coleman. “He’s caught Robbie Keane in the mush. It was frustration.”
Coleman added: “We lost it through poor defending, it wasn’t like we didn’t create a chance.
“You can’t defend like that against a team like Spurs with Keane, Mido and Berbatov.
“With the first goal our positioning was terrible, the second was identical. We were naive and nervous.”
Fulham are in position to challenge for a top-half finish but could also be dragged into a relegation battle, which Coleman is aware of.
He added: “Luckily we’ve got 32 points, 12 away from the bottom three but if we defend like that there’ll be a relegation battle.”
FULHAM: Lastuvka, Volz, Christanval, Knight, Queudrue, Radzinski (Dempsey 67), Diop, Smertin, Davies, Helguson (Montella 62), McBride (John 62).
TOTTENHAM: Robinson, Chimbonda, Dawson, Gardner, Young-Pyo Lee, Lennon (Ghaly 83), Zokora, Tainio, Malbranque, Keane, Mido (Berbatov 73).
Referee: M Halsey (Lancashire).
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