The bubble finally burst on David Pleat's latest spell in charge of Spurs. The scoreline may not have been emphatic but the boos ringing around the ground at half time and full time certainly were.

Possibly the worst performance of the season, the result was only respectable thanks to the woodwork rescuing Spurs on no less than 4 occasions - 3 of those from Bolton's superbly gifted playmaker Jay Jay Okocha (so good they named him twice). Everyone is aware of his talents so why did the Spurs players decide it would be a good idea to let him have all the time and space he required to pick our defence apart as often as he wished?

Spurs once again started relatively brightly. Poyet and Anderton were inexplicably recalled to the starting line up. Taricco and Richards were back while Gardner, Dalmat, Ricketts and the injured Ziege, all of whom had started in the Carling Cup victory, were missing from the 16 altogether. Anderton had however been shifted out to the right side of midfield and this seemed to spark a big improvement in his performances compared to the last couple of months.

For the first 15 minutes it was basically all Spurs but as we've done several times over the last few weeks we failed to take advantage of a good spell and let the other team back into the game. Okocha announced his intentions after 18 minutes with a superb 25 yard half-volley that crashed off the crossbar, followed shortly after with a 20 yard free-kick that went just over. He was now running the show and had 2 more attempts on goal before Carr burst into the box on the half-hour but was unable to get his shot in. That was just about the only thing that stopped it being one-way traffic in the 30 minutes leading up to the break.

Pleat recoginsed yet another dismal performance by Poyet by hauling him off at the interval and sending on Postiga to boost the front line. This allowed Robbie Keane to drop into the hole behind Postiga and Bobby Zamora. However this new formation had little impact on the game as Bolton continued to rain in shot on Keller's goal. The woodwork was rattled again 10 minutes into the 2nd half as Davies deflected Okocha's free kick onto the bar and then headed the rebound back at goal, only for Keller and Richards to keep his 2nd effort out.

Zamora did have a chance on the hour mark but shot straight at Jaaskelainen with little power behind his effort. Konchesky's 30 yarder was deflected wide but we were unable to get anything from the corner.

Taricco was replaced by Blondel with Konchesky slotting in at left back but the next significant event was the Spurs bar being hit by a Giannakopoulos strike.

A corner was cleared away only as far as Okocha. The Spurs defenders opted not to close him down as he fired in a low shot which bobbled in front of Keller, who spilled it and the unmarked Nolan tapped home the winner.

With 10 minutes to go Okocha hit the bar once more as Spurs failed to learn their lesson. Spurs almost obtained a late, undeserved equaliser as Blondel rode a tackle and fired in a shot which Jaaskelainen scrambled away.

The unbeaten record was gone as the Spurs fan called for a full-time manager to be appointed. The limbo we are in under Pleat steadied the club after Hoddle's sacking but now we need to move on.

MOTM: Tempted to go for the crossbar but will share it between Richards and Taricco who made less mistakes than most of the others on show.

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
12	Tottenham	11	3	3	5	10	14	12

without blogging, other than match reports which don't really count.

Anyway, the missus moved in on the 29th. Having to adjust to having her around all the time. She's already nagging and moaning but she's enjoying her job.

Work is going ok. Been really busy this week. Today was the only time I finished before 6 all week. My manager seems to find it amusing to make me stay until after the last minibus has gone so I have to walk home. Been lucky so far that it hasn't been raining but it's really frustrating when I think I've done all my work and then he suddenly produces a load more stuff that he expects done there and then.

Have got the first 2 CIMA modules to do as home study. Not looked at them yet though.

Went out for a very good Indian on Monday. Have been doing the cooking since Tuesday, not had any compaints yet. Actually cooked some proper meals - not just stuff straight out of packets.

Off to the North London derby tomorrow. Not holding out too much hope of a result but if we put in a gritty performance we may be able to snatch something.

The missus has decided she wants to go to a firework display tomorrow night. The park is just the other side of the station so we could watch it from the front windows and be nice and warm. Instead we have to cough up £12 to go and stand outside in the cold.

I'll go along with this on the condition that I can spend all Sunday watching sport. Hopefully Wales have peaked too early after their superb display against the All Blacks. England need to step up a gear if they are to live up to their favourites tag and go on to win the World Cup.

Trying to avoid a mammoth blog full of stuf I've done over the last 10 or so days so I'm going to stop here.

But I'll be back again soon(ish)

I doubt there will ever be a better performance by a losing side in a North London Derby

With Dalmat and Gardner back in place of Poyet and Doherty, as well as Pleat springing a surprise by starting Helder Postiga in place of Zamora, Spurs took the game to the home team from the first whistle.

An unexpected breakthrough came in the 5th minute as Keane controlled the ball on the edge of the box. His attempt to play it through a mass of legs only reached Lauren but his clearance bounced off Keane and fell for Anderton to calmly place the ball past Jens Lehmann, sending the travelling fans wild.

Thierry Henry tried to find an equaliser but Keller was more than a match for his 2 efforts.

A clear cut chance fell to young Postiga as Lauren's backpass lacked the power to reach Lehmann. however he failed to get a shot away as Lehmann smothered - and lashed out with his feet at the Portugese forward, which went unpunished by referee Mark Halsey, who had a shocking game.

Anderton did well to stop Ljungberg getting the equaliser before there was a sense of deja vu with Postiga being presented with another great chance by Lauren's backpass. He made it a bit too obvious where he would place his shot and Lehmann saved it.

The 2 goal lead would not have flattered Spurs's efforts in the opening 45 minutes but it wasn't to be.

After failing to get back into the game in the opening 15 minutes of the second half Whinger pulled off Gilberto and Lauren for Cygan and Bergkamp as the Scum started committing more men forward.

The equaliser finally came as Henry strayed well offside and received the ball from Parlour in plenty of space. He twisted and turned before shooting. Keller saved but there was no white shirt there in time to stop Pires tapping in the rebound.

The knife was twisted 10 minutes later as Ljungberg shot from distance. The ball looped up off Carr and over the stranded Keller before squeezing just inside the post.

Arsenal's unbeaten run continued as Spurs were unable to get a second goal and claim even a point.

Many positives can be taken from this game but it's still galling to be beaten by them down the road, especially when it's due to a debatable offside, a massive deflection and an appalling ref.

MOTM: King. A superb calming influence in the midfield. Allowed Dalmat to get forward well.

Pos	Club	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
13	Tottenham	12	3	3	6	11	16	12

it's been over a week again since I've blogged. No Premiership games today so spending the whole day at home catching up on stuff.

Went to the Library last Saturday to see Spurs get undeservedly beaten. Rushed back afterwards to see the fireworks. By the time I got back to Aldershot the missus had already gone to the park so I had to meet her there. Got to the park about 5 minutes into the main display. Then had to queue for another 5-10 minutes to pay £6 to get in. Finally in, I tracked down Jenny and we stood and watched the rest fairly impressive firework display. For all of about 20 minutes. Then she decided she wanted to go home as soon as the display finished. Luckily she decided that she'd treat me to a Chinese on the way home.

Spent most of Sunday doing shopping. Got a load of groceries from Tesco then went and bought a new TV from Argos. Now enjoying 21 inches of glorious technicolour and Nicam digital stereo. All paid for by my brother. Good lad (for a change).

Work's been ok this week. Been doing pretty much the same thing all week. Got to go to Hastings on Tuesday to visit our client's site. Only going to point out all the money they owe us really.

My studying is still struggling to get started. Almost finished reading the study skills book of bull that came (free) with the module. Determined to do some proper studying tomorrow.

Went and watched the mighty Aldershot beat Exeter City on Tuesday night with Ben, one of the other graduates. The missus was supposed to come with us but she's been "poorly" all week

She is possibly the worst ill person I've ever met. Every question or request is met with "I'm poorly" She claims all the medicines that she sells to the general public on a daily basis don't actually work on her. Luckily I've avoided her germs and touch wood I'm still healthy at the mo.

Before anyone complains that I'm an unsympathetic barsteward, I gave her sympathy but she used it all up on the 1st day.

She did make it out last night though when we went round to Ben's house for dinner (not tea, as she would call it due to her strange Northern ways). Ben lives with Charlene and Will who are 2 of the other graduates who started about the same time as me, and also Laurence who's in the 2nd year of the graduate scheme. Will prepared a very fancy bangers and mash with gravy - actually a chasseur sauce. Went down a treat.

Got to watch the rest of Soccer AM now and tidy the flat cos there's plenty of filing I've been putting off. Then Wales vs Russia later and bits of the Oz vs All Blacks semi-final when I remember to turn over.

Think that's all I've got to report for now.

that will be playing either England or France in the final of the Rugby World Cup.

Going to be a tough game tomorrow for Woody's boys and an even tougher one if they make it through to the final.

Best of luck to them. (Edit: Them being England. Not the other teams. Boo to them instead.)

Well done to the rugby boys for getting to the World Cup final. A great effort to beat the French. Fingers crossed they'll beat the Aussies (about time we beat them at something!!)

The football players could do with a few lessons in defending but the friendly against Denmark was at least entertaining to watch. Rooney's goal was top notch. Shame Spurs' Tony Gardner was injured and unable to take his place on the subs bench.

The planned trip to Hastings tomorrow for work has been postponed so I don't have to drag myself out of bed at stupid o'clock for at least another week.

Speaking of stupid o'clock, some drunken dickhead decided to have an extremely loud domestic right outside our flat at about half past midnight last night. I was woken up to the repeated shouting of "I CAN FCUKING SHOUT IF I WANT TO!!" Not outside my flat you can't, dickhead. After upsetting most of the residents in the street, many of whom had told him to shut up - probably not too politely given the time - he finally gave up having completely disturbed my night's sleep. Wanker.

Off to make some spag bol now, another example of my new found culinary skills.

How good was that?

It could only have been a Jonny Wilkinson drop goal to finish it off.

Amazingly tense game. England didn't help their cause by giving away a lot of penalties and scrums in the 2nd half which gave Flatley the chance to close the 9 point halftime lead and send the game to extra time.

Plenty of big hits were exchanged but the Ozzies seemed to come off worse, with Larkham having 3 trips to the blood bin for a mouth injury.

Robinson took his try well after good work by Dallaglio but the rest of the points were from the boot of Jonny.

Good work lads. Something to be seriously proud of.