More Than Half A Page Of Scribbled Lines

Its a sad fact but my greatest night as a fan of Tottenham Hotspur happened nearly forty one years ago. Sometime late into the evening of Wednesday 23rd May 1984 a relatively unknown 21 year old goalkeeper Tony Parks saved a penalty in a shoot-out at the Paxton Road end of White Hart Lane to secure the victory in that season's UEFA Cup. This was not only the clubs third European trophy, it was the third major trophy Spurs picked up in four seasons. The starting eleven for that match was ravaged by injuries and suspensions in a time when squads were much smaller than now. Ray Clemence, Steve Perryman, Ossie Ardiles and the clubs greatest ever player Glenn Hoddle were all unavailable although a barely fit Ossie did make the bench. If only I'd realised as me and Dad made our way back to my Nans to collect the car and make our way home up a completely log jammed Great Cambridge Road that things would never quite the same again. The manager of six years,  Keith Berkinshaw had much e...

There's this really handy display option on the dashboard in my car that tells the driver approxiamately how many miles worth of petrol he or she has left in the tank. The risks of ignoring this information are two fold. Firstly, eventually you'll end up running out of fuel and be parked up on the side of the road while everyone else passes you on the way to their chosen destination. The second risk is much more damaging in the long run. What will happen as the tank empties is that all of the muck and impurities from the fuel will end up being sucked into the engine and potentially cause long term damage to the efficiency and performance of that engine. When Spurs returned to the training ground at 3am on Friday morning after the victory over Hoffenheim in the Europa League, the coach would have metaphorically rolled into the car park literally on the last on the fumes from the fuel. I know that Hoffenheim are an even bigger basket case this season than Spurs have been but its ...

If this match turns out to be Tottenham Hotspur's final visit to Goodison Park (there's still a chance, albeit small that the sides could meet there in the next round of the FA Cup) then its one that will live long in the memory of both sets of fans.  Everton, a side that had managed just 15 goals before the game, were 3 nil up at the break which I imagine made their fans half-time refreshments the most enjoyable they'd been all season. Meanwhile in the away section, the pubs of North London and in the many sitting rooms of the armchair fans the beer, tea, coffee or fizzy drink would have had a distinctly sour taste.  Ever since Spurs lost at home to Chelsea last season when they finished the game with nine men and the list of injuries that Florence Nightingale would have difficulty coping with began to grow, Ange has either refused to or has been accused of never changing his way of playing. This is of course bollocks, especially this season as the depleted squad has meant...

Win, lose or draw I generally try to leave it at least 24hrs after the end of the match before jotting down my musings on the outcome. This means whatever happens I'm feeling like I'm allowing for a period of reflection and post Wednesday night thats certainly required. On the face of it what happened was completely predictable. A stereo-typical North London Derby if you like, certainly the ones played at the Emirates. One team was far superior to the other. The lesser team failed to take advantage of the situation they found themselves in half an hour in.  The side with the predeliction for conceding comedy goals in sometimes unfortunate circumstances conceded a comedy goal in unfortunate circumstances and of course followed it up by conceding again almost immediately following two or if your being harsh, three individual errors. Burgvall Gets Stuck In, Johnson Looks On In Admiration Despite improving after the break the lesser team failed to have another shot on target after ...

Unfortunately, lots of travelling for family reasons over the past couple of weeks has meant that I haven't been able to keep up with my writing up of how I see things going on with Spurs as well as I would ideally like. Obviously the ramblings of a middle aged misery are not exactly important compared to the health and well being of those you love and hold great regard for but I do hope to keep the scribbling up. Call it a sort of New Years Resolution. Anyway, the last game I commented on was the draw with Wolves. Next up was in-form Newcastle at home with what seemed like an almost 'International Break' gap of six days between the matches. Something quite unusual happened in the first four minutes in as much as Spurs actually took the lead. Dominic Solanke placed a superb header from a Porro cross into the corner of the Newcastle net. Sadly the lead lasted about as long as a Truss premiership and within two minutes the visitors were level.  Making his debut in goal for th...

There's been a lot of two-ing and fro-ing in the build up to and indeed the period of Christmas thats meant with one thing and another I just haven't had the time to blog any Spurs updates for a while. Since my last effort, just after the 4-3 home victory over Manchester United in the League Cup quarter final the games have been bizarre, wholly predictable and very frustrating. In that order. First up was the home fixture with Liverpool. Now given how Liverpool have been performing under new boss Arne Slot this would have been a more than tricky game even with a full strength side available. Probably worth noting at this point that when Spurs were interested in employing Slot as manager they refused to pay the release clause included in his contract at Feyenood. The rest is of course history. This game would also be a dress rehersal for the first leg of the League Cup semi final where due to the draw we've avoided the humiliation of losing to Arsenal over two legs only to f...