Relief for ‘true pro’ Soldado

Tottenham Hotspur 1 Cardiff City 0

Without a goal in eight games and rapidly assembling his own show reel of gaffes and bloopers in the process, Soldado’s confidence had been ebbing fast, with the forward linked with a return to Spain less than a year after Spurs paid Valencia £26 million (€31.5m) for his services.

But relief came against a Cardiff side rooted in the bottom three midway through the first half, when the forward finished his side’s best move of the afternoon to record only his second Premier League goal from open play and his first at White Hart Lane.

The emotional reaction from the player and his team-mates, who responded by enthusiastically mobbing the forward, showed how the burden had been playing on Soldado. The reality, though, was that in the context of Tottenham’s ambitions this season, it was almost certainly too little, too late.

“If I could have chosen anyone to score that goal, it would have been Robbie,” said Tim Sherwood, the Spurs manager.

“He has never shirked anything and has been a true professional. You have to look at his record in La Liga but if he had not been showing the desire in training, I would have left him out. But he has stuck at it and I stood by him.

“He’s a great lad and he knows he has been through a sticky spell. It’s only one goal, but let’s hope it’s a platform and he can go on and score 20 goals between now and the end of the season!”

Soldado’s difficulties in front of goal mirror those of Spurs overall and while the defeat at Norwich last weekend may well be seen as the occasion Tim Sherwood’s side lost touch with the top four — this win leaves them four points adrift of Manchester City who have played two games less — the lack of cutting edge throughout the campaign has proved costly.

Their frailties were in evidence against Ole Gunnar Solksjaer’s team who were looking for only their second victory in 12 league games and who were once again performing to a backdrop of continuing strife between Vincent Tan, the controversial owner, and a significant number of the club’s fans.

Soldado’s goal should have provided a platform for a more convincing victory.

Instead, it served as a buffer against dropping further points, although Sherwood insists Tottenham’s Champions League aspirations are not over.

“Any team who can put a run together can do it, and I’d include Everton and possibly Newcastle in that as well,” Sherwood added.

Cardiff’s plight is obviously more severe although Solksjaer drew comfort from a first-half display he viewed as the best since he succeeded Malky Mackay, and came after Tan had spoken to the players at the team’s hotel on the eve of the match.

Tan attracted fresh controversy last week with his comments about Mackay — the former manager had “got lucky” in winning promotion and “gone berserk” with the owner’s money during the summer window — while insisting he would never backtrack on the decision to change the club’s colours from blue to red and warning he would consider walking away from the club if groups of supporters continued to agitate against his regime.

But Solksjaer insisted the owner’s support had been welcomed by the players and insisted this was a time for unity, not division, if Cardiff were to have any hope of pulling clear from the bottom three.

“We saw the owner last night and he is committed to the club,” said the manager. “It is the first time he has spoken to the players since I came here and they appreciated it. In this run in we need everyone together, everyone of us that has a Bluebird heart, or a Cardiff heart.”

Cardiff certainly worried Spurs early on but were undone when the home side broke quickly from a corner with Andros Townsend leading the charge before moving the ball on for Emmanuel Adebayor, who set up Soldado for the decisive close-range finish.

Cardiff captain Steven Caulker hit the bar with a header almost immediately afterwards but chances were thin on the ground and the second half petered out in a manner that suggested both sides will fall short of their targets this season.

TOTTENHAM (4-4-2): Lloris 7; Naughton 6, Dawson 9, Vertonghen 7, Fryers 6; Lennon 7, Dembele 5, Paulinho 5 (Sandro 71,6), Townsend 8 (Chadli 69,6); Adebayor 7, Soldado 7 (Kane 82,6).

CARDIFF (5-3-2): Marshall 6; Da Silva 6 (Jones 71,6), Caulker 8, Cala 7, Turner 7, John 6; Medel 8, Gunnarsson 5 (Mutch 63, 6), Kim 6; Bellamy 5 (Daehli 63,6), Campbell 5.

Referee: Phil Dowd.