ANY neutral who tuned in to Sunday’s FA Cup tie at the Reebok and didn’t know any better would have thought Bolton, and not Spurs, were the respected footballing team chasing a Champions League place.

The critics won’t like admitting it, but it was the team in white that was playing the football and the team in blue that was launching the ball forward.

So it didn’t surprise me that Spurs stepped up a gear in the second half because we “footballed” them to death in the first half.

Harry Redknapp and his backroom staff — Joe Jordan, Kevin Bond and Clive Allen — were moaning all the time, screaming at their players to get tighter and get on the ball. But they couldn’t get near the Bolton players.

I walked up the tunnel with Joe Jordan after half-time and he told me Harry had given his players the biggest rollicking they’d ever had.

And although they didn’t respond straight away, it was to be expected they would have a good spell at some point in the game and, when they did, Jermain Defoe produced a great finish to take the tie to a replay. It had to be a great finish to beat Jussi Jaaskelainen, who was in top form again.

But they were lucky to get another crack at it because they should have been out of it by then because the Wanderers were so superior.

They couldn’t quite produce the quality of finishing to go with their dominance, but they did manage to score one of the goals of the season.

When the ball hit the net I jumped on the bloke at the side of me and nearly broke his back — then spent the next five minutes clapping. It was pure football — 16 passes strung together in a great move brilliantly finished by Kevin Davies.

Davo gets a lot of stick from a lot of quarters for being a tough, hard case centre-forward and isn’t given enough credit for the skill and talent he brings to the game. But that first touch, the swivel and the shot — placed perfectly to beat Gomes — were sheer class.

I still felt Davo didn’t get enough protection from the referee. He never does but he’s learned to just get on with it. That’s the kind of bloke he is.

As I said, Spurs were always going to have a spell in the game, so it was important that when they were at their most dangerous, we had Jussi showing the kind of form that makes him the best keeper in the business.

He was unlucky with the penalty at Manchester City but this time he got it right and prevented Tom Huddleston putting Spurs in front.

I know Jussi will say that is what he’s there for because he always shrugs off the praise, but I can say for sure that if there are kids out there who aspire to be goalkeepers, they can’t pick a better role model to follow.

It was disappointing that we weren’t able to finish Spurs off on Sunday, but there were so many positives to take from the game — not least the spirit of players like Zat Knight and Chung-Yong Lee who both got injured but didn’t want to come off — that we can go down there next week with a lot of confidence.

We can also go to Wigan tomorrow night knowing we have more than matched one of the best teams in the league.