By Ben Pearce
AARON Lennon believes that turning White Hart Lane into a fortress is the key to Tottenham’s season as Spurs continue to fight on all fronts.
The pacy winger put in a devastating man of the match performance against Blackburn Rovers on Sunday as Harry Redknapp maintained his 100 per cent record in N17 since taking charge.
It was the Lilywhites boss’ fifth straight win at the Lane after victories over Bolton, Dynamo Zagreb and a double over Liverpool in both the league and the Carling Cup.
Spurs visit NEC Nijmegen in the Uefa Cup tonight (Thursday) but are back in north London again on Sunday to face Everton, and Lennon is urging his team-mates to secure victory in the Netherlands and then focus on maintaining the club’s home form at the weekend.
“We have to look for three points in every game, but especially at home,” he said. “It’s so tight now [in the Premier League], a couple more wins and we could be fighting for Europe, so our aim is to finish in a European spot.
“But we’ve got a European game first, which we need to win. We want to do well in all the competitions, and in the Uefa Cup we’ve never done as well as we should have done.
“I think we have the players to do it, we have a great squad so we can change players or systems, and hopefully we can go far in it this year.”
Lennon had previously found himself out of the spotlight so far this season with the summer signings and Redknapp’s arrival stealing the headlines.
But he shot back into prominence again against Blackburn, setting up the winning goal for Roman Pavlyuchenko and reducing Rovers to 10 men after Martin Olsson was booked twice for hacking down the 21-year-old.
The Spurs faithful were quick to reward their hero with songs from the terraces, but Lennon insists that Tottenham have yet to see the best of him as he seeks to improve his game under Redknapp.
“It’s always a great feeling to hear the fans singing your name, it gives you that bit more to go again,” said Lennon.
“It’s not been easy because sometimes you think you’re doing well and then you’re back on the bench again, so when you get your chance you’ve got to try and take it.
“My finishing is one thing I need to improve on, I’ve been working on it a lot so it was good to get an assist, and for it to be the winning goal was great.
“This season I think I’ve started well and my performances have been getting better and better, and I think [Blackburn] was my best performance of the season – I’m getting back to my old self.