Graham wants patience

George Graham has urged Tottenham fans to be patient during tonight's UEFA Cup clash with Moldovan champions FC Zimbru at White Hart Lane.

Tottenham fans will be hoping for an early goal against the side that dismissed St Patrick's Athletic.

But manager Graham wants them to remain patient and positive if it doesn't come.

"I want the fans to know that we want to attack and get an early goal, but they must be patient and don't expect a glut of goals," said Graham.

"If we get an early goal it will be nice, but if not we must be patient and positive.

"We watched a video yesterday of them against PSV Eindhoven in their Champions League qualifier and they only lost in the last 10 minutes of the game, so we will treat them with respect.

"They are well organised and get everybody back behind the ball. They play a 3-5-1-1 formation and just leave one up so they will make it very frustrating for us."

Graham feels he has done his homework on Zimbru and given his players the information they need to avoid slipping up on a potential early round banana skin.

Graham's first anniversary since he took charge of Spurs comes up on October 1st, which is just a day after the second leg against Zimbru, so he is hoping to celebrate by being in the next round of the UEFA Cup draw.

"It is coming up to a year since I joined the club," he said. "We have won a trophy, we are in Europe and we are playing good, attacking, exciting football, so things aren't going too badly."

Les Ferdinand is expected to shake-off an ankle injury sustained in Sunday's 1-1 draw at Bradford.

But Spurs will continue to be without injury victims Sol Campbell, John Scales, Ramon Vega, Darren Anderton and Willem Korsten.