Spurs and Boro fail to find goals

Tottenham 0 Middlesbrough 0

David Pleat extended his unbeaten run as caretaker manager to six games and the White Hart Lane board might just consider taking Glenn Hoddle’s jibe seriously.

Spurs kept their fifth clean sheet since Pleat succeeded Hoddle in charge last month, but it was hardly pretty as they failed to find a way past a resolute Middlesbrough defence.

In fact, it was Boro who had the best chance of the game, but goalkeeper Kasey Keller made an excellent flying save to keep out Bolo Zenden’s fierce shot from 20 yards after 54 minutes.

Boro put a total of eight goals past Spurs in the two meetings last season and started confidently, with Gaizka Mendieta firing a shot wide after two minutes.

Spurs hit back with three successive corners after four minutes and a dangerous cross from Paul Konchesky on the left was only just knocked away from Dean Richards by the lunge of goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.

Richards mis-judged the flight of the ball after eight minutes and allowed Malcolm Christie to get in behind him, but the striker snatched at his shot from 20 yards and it was well wide.

It was end-to-end stuff and Konchesky did well on the left again after 13 minutes when he drilled in a low cross aimed at Gus Poyet.

It took a fine saving tackle from Colin Cooper on the edge of the six-yard box to clear the danger.

Konchesky is on loan from Charlton in a swap deal which took Chris Perry the other way, and he did his best to impress the Spurs fans with a fierce drive from 25 yards after 16 minutes which flashed past the far post.

The same player provided a good cross after 19 minutes which fell for Darren Anderton on the edge of the 18-yard box but his shot was blocked by Cooper.

Cooper conceded a free-kick for climbing on Bobby Zamora after 30 minutes to present Spurs with a chance to create something from 30 yards.

Konchesky tapped it to Anderton but Zenden raced from the wall to charge down the shot.

Boro launched a good counter-attack when Szilard Nemeth raced through the middle but when the ball came in for George Boateng he scooped his effort over the bar.

The first half tailed off until injury-time when Nemeth tried his luck from 30 yards and Keller had to tip the ball over his bar.

Zamora’s persistence won a corner in the second minute of the second half and Poyet headed Anderton’s cross from the right into Mark Schwarzer’s arms.

There was little to warm the fans until the best chance of the game fell to Zenden after 54 minutes.

Mendieta fed the Dutch winger – on loan from Chelsea – on the left edge of the box and his fierce drive was brilliantly turned round his right hand post by Keller.

Christie missed a golden chance to open the scoring after 58 minutes, completely missing a low cross from Boateng with just Keller to beat from six yards.

Boro boss Steve McLaren was unhappy with Zenden in the first half and might have given him talking to, as his second-half performance was much improved, and after 63 minutes he flashed a low drive just wide.

Pleat was down from the directors’ box to the touchline and went for a tactical change after 64 minutes when he replaced Zamora with Helder Postiga.

From the restart Dean Richards tripped Mendieta to concede a free-kick 25 yards from goal on the left. Mendieta curled the ball over the wall and Keller made sure by tipping it over his bar.

After 67 minutes Anthony Gardner fouled Christie on the opposite side and this time Zenden fired over the top.

There was one last-gasp chance in the final minute when substitute Rohan Ricketts fed Postiga, but he hit a tame shot straight at Schwarzer.

Both sets of fans were left frustrated at the lack of quality in front of goal and in the end neither side did enough to merit taking all three points.