Jol backing for under-fire 'keeper
Robinson
Martin Jol gave his support to under-fire Tottenham goalkeeper Paul
Robinson ahead of England's two crunch Euro 2008 qualifiers.
Robinson made another blunder in the 2-2 draw at Liverpool
yesterday when he spilled a Steven Gerrard free-kick to present
Andriy Voronin with the opening goal.
Robbie Keane scored goals in each half to put Spurs ahead, only for
Fernando Torres to pop up with the equaliser two minutes into
injury time.
But it was Robinson's error that will concern England fans ahead of
the next two internationals against Estonia and Russia, with the
party joining up this week.
But Jol refused to accept that the goal was Robinson's fault.
He said: 'I am not concerned about Paul Robinson's form and
suggestions he made another mistake.
'If you see the replay you see that it got a deflection off
Jermaine Jenas, hitting his knee, it was not a mistake. It hit him
and Voronin was first to the rebound.
'Nobody went with the runner, it was a bad goal from the defence's
point of view.
'I have no worries about Paul. Every game is different, he has
confidence and that is why I played him in midweek against
Famagusta, and at Anfield.'
Jol's side made it six games undefeated as the north Londoners
claimed a deserved point at Liverpool, but he still admitted he
does not know what his future holds.
The Spurs chief has been under pressure all season as Spurs have
struggled around the foot of the table.
But Jol insisted: 'I do not know about the future, I do not pull
the strings and I do not have any control over the scenario. If I
did everything would be quiet.
'But see my team, they want to fight and they fight every game. The
players always stay the same, it is very positive.'
Voronin put Liverpool ahead early on, but Spurs attacked constantly
and looked as if they were heading for their first Anfield win
since 1993, and were 2-1 ahead until the last seconds.
Jol said: 'We could not get the third, we had the breaks and that
would have ended it. I just couldn't understand how we didn't
achieve that.
'Everyone has said we deserved to win, and that is how we feel. In
particular in the second half we were on top of them and caused a
lot of problems.
'But in the end it was a bad result for us. But we have got a great
spirit, everyone can see that, we have done a lot of travelling in
midweek to Cyprus and then up here to Liverpool.
'It has been a difficult time for us. But we took a lot of
confidence from this.'
Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez must have felt his side were going to
lose for the second time at Anfield in five days, following the 1-0
Champions League reverse against Marseille.
He said: 'Of course we are disappointed. The character was fine, we
worked hard but we conceded two very bad goals, the sort we do not
normally let in.
'Those two mistakes cost us. They were so clear, so easy to stop.
It is not normal to see us concede goals like that.
'We were much better than them in the first half, we could have
scored a few more. But we didn't and that left us with a difficult
second half.'
