Football: Aloisi's quick off the mark

NOW SEVEN matches without a win and steeling themselves for a searching second half of the season, Coventry are clearly not going to submit for a long time yet. Certainly not for the time Gordon Strachan can match a manager of George Graham's reputation for wallpaper-peeling half-time lectures.

About a year ago Coventry beat Spurs 4-0 and subsequently climbed strongly to reach 11th position where they finished an unusual season free from relegation pressure. Yesterday it was back to the old familiar business of looking into the New Year insecure in the knowledge that another struggle was ahead. All they could hope for was that Tottenham's 2-0 defeat at Chelsea a week ago - admittedly when they finished with only 10 men - had slightly deflated the new spirit of togetherness and stubbornness inspired by Graham. The hope was justified.

The conditions, driving rain and wind, mitigated against frills, but probably with two mean Scots as managers, neither team had set out with decorative thoughts. Coventry placed three in central defence, closed down David Ginola quickly and had Paul Williams at his defensive best. All to no early effect since Spurs took an 18th-minute lead.

Williams had twice interrupted promising Tottenham moves on his left side of an increasingly greasy pitch, but when Spurs won a corner on the other side he was only one of half-a-dozen Coventry players clustered in the goalmouth. All were unable to stop Ginola heading on and Sol Campbell eventually got the ball through the tangle and over the line past the 41-year-old Steve Ogrizovic, who had been brought into the Coventry side at the last minute for his first game of the season after Magnus Hedman felt unwell during the warm-up.

Strachan's continual complaint is that Coventry create far more chances than they take. Here, Noel Whelan seemed forever in the right place at the right time and doing the wrong thing with the best of intentions. Support, though, was erratic.

That Spurs retained their lead early in the second half went down to the remarkable goalkeeping of Ian Walker. First he elegantly and efficiently leaped across goal to tip away a bending shot from Stephen Froggatt, then twice denied Spurs with sheer split- second reactions. Froggatt had centred and Whelan had a point-blank header which Walker forced back to Whelan whose second attempt the goalkeeper somehow blocked on his line.

Walker's work deserved better than to concede an 80th-minute equaliser. Conversely, Coventry's newcomer from Portsmouth, John Aloisi, could not be denied full praise for obtaining it and rewarding Coventry for a far more positive second half. Just inside the Spurs penalty area, Aloisi twisted to get behind Luke Young, then jinked past Stephen Carr before coolly shooting inside the far post.

With Ginola hardly touching the game and Les Ferdinand and Chris Armstrong rarely in touch with their midfield support, Spurs finished without harmony and looking a bedraggled bunch. The Scot with the better line in half- time barracking was clearly Strachan. Graham more or less accepted that but took the philosophical view: "It will take me a year to get a squad I'm happy with." Coventry may not have that long.