Stephen Warnock believes that one Tottenham man should have prevented Wolves’ late equaliser on Sunday, accusing the player of lacking bravery.

Tottenham hit with a late sucker punch against Wolves

Even though Spurs were not at their best on Sunday, particularly in the second-half, they would have thought they had done enough to come away with three points.

However, Wolves found an equaliser in the 87th minute, with Jorgen Strand Larsen lashing home at the near post from a tight angle to send the away end into pandemonium.

That meant that Tottenham had to settle for a draw and continue to be rooted to the bottom half of the table, with the result seemingly being the last straw for many Spurs fans, who are now calling for a managerial change.

Stephen Warnock says Fraser Forster should have saved it

Warnock pointed the finger squarely at Fraser Forster for the equaliser that Tottenham conceded. The former Blackburn and Aston Villa left-back suggested that the Spurs number two should have been brave rather than turning his back on the shot.

Reacting to Wolves’ equaliser, Warnock told BBC’s Final Score: “Fraser Forster has been done near post. The run from Jorgen Strand Larsen is lovely, as is the pass from Rayan Ait-Nouri, and Strand Larsen lashes the ball as hard as he can near post, top corner.

“Forster almost turns his back on it rather than standing tall and being brave. He should not be beaten from there.”

Forster could do nothing to stop that shot

There is an assumption among many pundits and fans that a goalkeeper should never be beaten on his near-post, which is completely erroneous.

When shots are powered into the roof of the net at the near-post, goalkeepers are often left helpless as not only do they have less time to react, but they are also setting themselves to dive the other way as forwards often go for the far-post.

Forster did the right thing by trying to make himself big and there was little he could do to stop that effort.

The post Tottenham man to blame for Wolves draw after ‘turning his back’ – Pundit appeared first on Spurs Web.

It was close, though!

The Milwaukee Brewers took at a no-hitter into the 7th inning against the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night, with Gavin Lux eventually smacking a 2-out single into CF to keep that measure of futility off their ledger for the time being.

The Reds, you’ll recall, entered play on Friday having lost a trio of consecutive games by the score of 1-0, their shutout streak in single-run games the first such instance in Major League Baseball history since the 1960 Philadelphia Phillies. They even ran that to some 35 innings during Friday’s game...

...but the Reds scored a run on Friday! Two, even! An 8th inning rally saw Christian Encarnacion-Strand launch a deep fly ball to the warning track in left-center to plate a run via sac fly while Jeimer Candelario followed with an RBI-single down the RF line. That cut into an existing 3-0 Milwaukee lead, leaving the Reds trailing 3-2 with the 9th inning left to play.

Was there a run-scoring inning streak to be found in the 9th?

No.

Reds lost, 3-2, and fell to 2-6 on the season - once again tied for last place in the National League Central.

Tony Graphanino

Box score & WPA chart via FanGraphs

Other Notes

• Numerous members of the team’s coaching staff were sent back to the team hotel in Milwaukee prior to the game tonight due to illness, including manager Terry Francona. Matt McLain was also a late scratch with a ‘hamstring’ issue, though he did show up in the 9th inning for a pinch-hit appearance (thankfully).
• Saturday’s matchup between these two clubs will feature Brady Singer and Elvin Rodriguez starting for their respective clubs, with first pitch set for 7:10 PM ET. It’ll be on FanDuel Sports Ohio, but it’s also being broadcast on FS1 nationally.
• Tunes.