How more ‘Spursy’ could it get ? An entire 38 game campaign hinges on two results on the final day of the season. Win and hope that Arsenal don’t and we finish fourth, AVB is a hero, and the press dig into a slice of humble pie. Fail to win, or indeed win, and see Dial Square beat Newcastle and we finish fifth, AVB is crap, and the media sharpen their knives for an all together much different reason. Its [...]
Posts Categorized: Blog
Me, Myself and 1882
The Under 21′s Semi Final of the U21′s against Everton, offered me the perfect chance to experience 1882 for the first time. As an East Stand lower regular, who is used to getting looks for singing at games, I was looking forward immensely to getting involved in the singing aspect of 1882. My mood was dampened though by the fact that my 15 year old son had to stay at home due to his first GCSE exam the following morning. [...]
1882 Makes My Grandad Pogo
After attending and enjoying the 1882 experience at the NextGen series game against Barcelona last year, I vowed to return. When it was announced that our Under 21 Semi Final against Everton, was to be an 1882 event, I immediately contacted my 70 year …
Feeling the Love for the Lane
The die has been cast, the season has arrived at a climactic showdown and what better place to have it settled than at White Hart Lane? The grand old stadium has played host to some of the greats of English football, and still stands as a beacon to day…
What This Season Has Not Been Missing
After 37 league games last season I wrote an article called ‘What This Season Has Been Missing’. Now, due to a technical hitch somewhere along the line the article never saw the light of day, but I’ll briefly summarise: incredible as it was in many ways, the 2011/12 season seemed to be lacking something. Statistically, little or no new ground was broken. Whereas previous years had seen Spurs break hoodoos, break into the top 4 and break the spirits of [...]
A United Front
More than anything else, I will remember the 2012/13 season for the biggest divide amongst supporters of Tottenham Hotspur I can recall in all my 25+ years of following the club. Whilst a large proportion of the fanbase have been won over by AVB’s passion and modern thinking, despite a sceptical start, there is still a prominent voice of resentment towards him following the removal of Harry Redknapp. Perhaps though Tottenham fans have always been this divided, and the growing [...]
The Return of the Striker
Tottenham’s draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge keeps the Lillywhites firmly in the race for Champions League football. Despite being dominated at points, Tottenham kept believing and as the game wore on looked the more likely to claim the three points. Credit must go to Andre Villas-Boas for another crucial substitution, but surely there is more than just on the spot sharpness to AVB? What exactly goes on at that multimillion pound state-of-the-art training centre? How are Spurs trying to [...]
John White to be remembered by Ex-Tottenham stars
One of the heroes of Tottenham Hotspur’s all-conquering side of the early 1960s will be remembered in a special memorial game featuring the Spurs Legends team on May 18. The official Spurs Legends team, which tours the UK regularly to help raise funds for worthy causes, is set to take on FC ScotSpurs, a dedicated team of Scottish fans of Tottenham, in a memorial match for John. Guesting in the FC ScotSpurs side will also be Flav, Charlie Marks, and [...]
Dreams and Nightmares on Fulham High Road
The May Bank Holiday brings welcome relief to workers throughout the UK. In London with offices closed and the sun shining, we head for the nearest patch of grass, or beer garden to enjoy some ice cold alcoholic beverages. On Monday I found myself in Highgate Woods, spread across a blanket, cider by my side and sleep slowly creeping upon me. “I am just going to close my eyes” I informed my girlfriend, who wasn’t listening, it seems a 5 [...]
Meat Men Facing the Chop
Yes, the end is nigh for The Fighting Cock’s adopted South African team, Botswana Meat Commission FC. As the name suggests, the team is backed by the Botswana Meat Commission, a state-owned company that oversees the country’s beef industry. Unfortunately, the Commission is in financial meltdown and is the subject of a parliamentary inquiry where, like Jack Wilshere in a fighter jet, the accusations are flying thick and fast. Charges include corruption, mismanagement, racial discrimination and embezzlement. Witnesses including BMC [...]
Ban the bomb?
This article originally appeared on the FSF website. Despite being prohibited by both law and ground regulations, you’ll have noticed that the use of flares, smoke bombs and firecrackers is on the increase at matches. Many fans, young and old, like them and feel they contribute to the atmosphere, but just as many don’t appreciate the possible danger they pose. The FSF’s Caseworker Amanda Jacks looks at the potential consequences of using pyrotechnics. Back in February a young teenager died [...]
Kriss Kross, Spurs and 90′s Disco Pop
It may not be a “where were you when you heard” moment, but the death of Chris Kelly, one half of Kris Kross still resonates. When I look back to my youth, I remember fondly attempting to dance and rap to “Jump” at my first year 7 disco, it was a song perfect for that time. Unfortunately, most of the 90′s wasn’t that great for the Spurs. With Kelly now chilling alongside other great rappers such as 2Pac, Biggie and [...]
Why can’t we get a squad together?
Throughout my life Tottenham have never had a properly rounded squad. I’m approaching thirty now, and ever since I can remember there have been gaping holes in the first team and yet some positions have experienced overcrowding akin to rush hour on the Victoria Line. We are talking real feast and famine, and I cannot fathom why. Back in the mid-nineties, the squad was to be honest, s**t. Then when David Ginola left, we had no left winger pretty much [...]
Jam Tomorrow
I don’t know how familiar everyone is with the concept of ‘jam tomorrow’ from Alice In Wonderland. The idea behind it is the constant promise that the workers will get jam ‘every other day’ and that ‘today isn’t ever any other day’ and that therefore the workers will never get jam; they only get the promise of it coming tomorrow. That seems ridiculous when explained in such a way, and it is. How anyone would stand for it seems alien [...]
The evolution of Gareth Frank Bale
What sets apart Bale’s Player of the Year award from those of Ginola or Klinsmann’s? What is it about the two latter awards that, whilst making me reminisce on what achingly wonderful players they both undoubtedly were (and probably still are) just don’t offer the same kind of moment of almost paternal pride that this weeks awards did? The answer is simple although layered; Ginola and Klinsmann joined us as established players, one a world class forward who had almost [...]
Ratings: Tottenham Hotspur 2 – 2 April 2013
Another month, another undefeated month, our worst month of the season. Bizarre, to say the least but this has been out lowest rated month with 6.09, beating the previous worst of 6.14 in November. We were knocked out of the Europa League on penalties after two 2-2 draws and won 1 and drew 2 of our three Premier League games, all games ending with 4 goals. We beat last season’s champions 3-1 but this was only our 15th best match [...]
Spurs Need More Glory Than Just Bale’s Double
The closer I got to London on Sunday night after a weekend in Cornwall, the more the fact that I was happy for Gareth Bale’s double PFA award win, but not delighted dawned on me. Like most Spurs fans, for me it’s the team not the individual that really matters. Looking at Bale’s smile as he collected two trophies was nice, but I would rather he held the invisible Wenger Cup. Third or fourth is much more important than the [...]
Is Scott Parker Spurs’ worst ever player?
‘Scott Parker is the worst player ever to wear a Spurs shirt’ – is probably your opinion if you spent the weekend freebasing crack cocaine and touching yourself looking at Jodie Marsh pictures. With 4,800 other Spurs masochists, I travelled to Wigan on Saturday with reasonable expectations of a nervy away win only to watch our beloved team scrape a late 2-2 draw. Creditable player performances were as rare as working taps in the Paxton toilets after a game at [...]
Wigan v Spurs: AVB’s Conundrums
The euphoria of the win against Man City has slowly ebbed away to be replaced with that usual touch of apprehension. Spurs travel to Wigan on Saturday a team who has become accustomed to wrecking dreams. The DW Stadium has laid many a title challenge and push for safety to bed, Spurs need to be at their best if they wish to avoid a similar fate. Back in November I commented that Wigan Athletic, the team that no one really [...]
One shoe, One movement, One vision
There was a moment on Monday night, as the haze lifted from a stray smoke bomb, when clarity reigned once more. As I looked around me at 1392 shoes being waved in the air I realised with total certainty that this was the way it was meant to be. What might have looked odd from the outside made perfect sense to the tightly packed group inside Barnet’s crumbling stadium. For this raucous show of trainers and old boots was not [...]
Seven Friends, 1882 and a MegaBuzz
Having coerced 6 friends to join me on the arduous trip from Bristol to London to watch a football game that they virtually had no interest in, (two were Liverpool fans and the rest were more interested in rugby or cricket), there was a great deal of p…
Overjoyed at Underhill
I’ve only travelled to Kings cross 3 times in order to watch Spurs, twice for league cup finals (Chelsea 2008 and United 2009) and once to break my 1882 duck, the later was undoubtedly the best. With every passing mile my expectation and anxiety grew, and despite being alone for the journey I was still optimistic. My excitement however was brought to a shuddering holt when 3 annoyingly happy Gooners stepped onto the train. A gooner is by design and [...]
Spurs Stand Up and Get Counted
It was a glorious seven minutes of pure unadulterated glory. White Hart Lane basked in sunshine; a sea of white and blue were bouncing across each stand. Grown men previously strangers embraced, ears rang with Spurs anthems and Man City wilted; it was a reminder of what it means to be Tottenham and what the old stadium still has to offer. This wasn’t as some media outlets portrayed Spurs snatching victory from defeat; it was Spurs believing that victory was [...]
Seven minutes of mind-blowing pleasure
Even Mila Kunis would struggle to provide seven minutes of such mind-blowing pleasure. Spurs’ late, three-goal salvo against Champions Manchester City touched the realms of fantasy and provided the best happy ending available on a Sunday afternoon in North London. This was one of those rare, great days for Spurs fans to savour. A past experience of pain only serves to heighten the joy and purity of the moment. If you truly love a team, as most of us do, [...]
Mo Money, Mo Options
As Chelsea prepares to spend £20million on Bayer Leverkusen’s André Schürrle, Spurs must brace themselves for tough times ahead. Despite not being guaranteed Champions League football, the Russian backed club are signalling their intent for next year early. Whether or not they finish in the top four will have no bearing on their ability to write the cheques that we can’t match. We have been fortunate for the last few seasons to count ourselves amongst the great and the good [...]
The Fanzine Returns to White Hart Lane – The Fighting Cock
After months of toiling, sweating, panicking, pondering, mass debating, we’ve only gone and done it. The first ever issue of The Fighting Cock fanzine is nearly there. So we haven’t actually gone and done it but we’re close. So close that you can now pre-order it (link at the bottom of the page!). And only those that pre-order will get two exclusive stickers. Stickers… it’s like being eight years old once again: Tottenham, adhesive pictures, and the illusion of eternal [...]
Arsenal and Their Tickling Stick
When spring decided not to show up in March and early April I took this as a good sign. Spurs over the last few years have always functioned better in the cold. Tottenham playing in the sunshine generally leads to only one thing, disaster. This year wi…
Hate the shirt
The mad cocktail of Spurs offers a necessary diversion from the freefall of our lives. But if you boo or abuse a player in a Tottenham jersey, you are hating the shirt. Loving the shirt, for me at least, means supporting the person in it through ninety plus minutes of pleasure, pain and misfortune. A fan is for air-conditioning, support is more than the silky boost of a Victoria’s Secret bra on supple, young skin, it is something that lifts [...]
Same Old Problems, For Same Old Spurs
It was 12 yards, but it might as well have been a thousand. The moment the referee signaled the end of a desperate 30 minutes of defending in extra-time, the tie was up. It’s been close to 20 years since Tottenham won a penalty shoot-out, is it a lack of belief? Technique? Or is it a sign that despite the hype, the new training ground and a promising young manager we are still the same frail team that I have [...]
The Glory in it All
“It’s magnificent to be in Europe and this club – a club like Tottenham Hotspur – if we’re not in Europe…. we’re nothing. We’re nothing.” No one should need telling who muttered these immortal words. And it’s equally safe to say that once this great man has spoken, his ideologies transcend time and set a standard for all the future Spurs players, managers, fans, tea ladies, and ground staff to adhere too. Fast forward 40 odd years, and a rather [...]
Slumpen Hotspurariat
Question: Are we slumping/swooning/collapsing/running out of steam? Answer: No. First, have a look at our possession statistics: I include both BBC’s and Opta’s statistics, because while they’re often very similar, sometimes they’re not. But in both cases, the five-game trend is similar: we’ve dipped a bit in the past few weeks, but we’re still keeping the ball at a higher level than we did for all of the 2012 side of the season. Sadly, of course, Brendan Rodgers hasn’t yet [...]
Don’t Squeeze the Deuce and the Myth of Mousa
It was a game that Spurs needed to win, but even more importantly, they couldn’t afford to lose. West Bromwich Albion’s usual end of season surrender to Arsenal had amplified the tension in the ground, but for once Spurs didn’t crumble, they were merely unlucky. Everton arrived with a game plan, something along the lines of sitting back, focusing on set pieces and keeping their fingers crossed for a bit of luck, it nearly worked. Tottenham dominated possession but as [...]
Spurs v FC Basel: No Swiss Rollover
Time slows down and you feel your subconscious picking up on the more subtle aspects of White Hart Lane. The blue seat flexing under you as you strain forward, the faint whiff of coffee off the chap next to you and then bang, you come speeding back to a painful reality from which there is no escape. Casting your eyes across the stadium you realise this isn’t a dream or a head rush, it’s Gareth Bale slapping the turf in [...]
March – The Tottenham Way
We know the feeling, we’ve all been there many times – there’s no keeping it simple with our beloved Tottenham and all emotions must be visited. The joy of beating the old enemy and pushing them 7 points adrift, the joy of beating one of the power houses of European football and seemingly booking our passage to the next round of a European cup competition, a minor ‘blip’ after a decent enough performance away from home against an in-form ‘historically [...]
Spurs without Lennon is like The Beatles without Lennon
Spurs without Lennon is like The Beatles without Lennon; the balance is all wrong, they’re not the same, and they’re nowhere near as good. For years the light-footed winger has been twisting and turning his way past right backs and centre backs alike, his speed and low centre of gravity makes him an ideal man on the right. Lennon has now been at Tottenham since 2005. His winner against Chelsea in 06 and his incredible performance against United in the [...]