As White Hart Lane echoed to home fans' jeers at half-time it seemed that
last night might end with Martin Jol finally being hounded out of Tottenham. As
he said later: "I don't even want to think about it if we would have lost." But
after Younes Kaboul's injury-time equaliser against Aston Villa completed an
astonishing comeback for the home side, who were 4-1 down with 21 minutes to
play, most of Jol's team raced towards the bench to celebrate with their
manager, who appears to retain the enthusiastic support of the players."You
should have seen him when we scored the goal," Keane said. "He had the support
from everyone. He's shown what a good manager he is over the past couple of
years. To come back from 4-1 down is unbelievable. You talk about dead and
buried but we showed lots of character. That's what we have in this team."Jol
was unhappy to be the centre of attention, insisting last night was "not about
me". "I don't think I've ever been involved in a game like this," he said. "I
don't know what to feel. It was awful but on the other hand it was a big
celebration at the end. We came back from the death and that was a big positive.
We could have won it at the end."Before the game Tottenham paraded a group of
club legends as they marked their 125th anniversary, but if the home side were
celebrating it was Villa who provided the fizz, initially at least. "At
half-time we said we have to play for the shirt and give everything," said Jol.
"They did that."But the 51-year-old was unwilling to be drawn into a discussion
about his future. "It was a night about football," he said. "I don't want to
think about negative things. It's not about results or the league, it's about
the celebration. We spoiled that, and it was awful to concede the goals like we
did. But my family are all in the Marines and a commander never leaves his
troops. If he does that he's lost. I kept my head cool."
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