Do you remember the first time?

Everyone remembers the first time they saw their team live, right?

I do.  Just about.   I went with a friend and his Dad to see Spurs v Aston Villa at Villa Park. They were both Villa fans, as were most of my friends by now, so we sat in with the Villa crowd.  Well, I say sat, but back then, behind the goal it was actually standing.  Consequently, as I was only 11 years old at the time, I missed most of the match.

It was March 16^th 1991.  20 years ago.  Writing this it’s hard to believe it was 20 years ago.  I’m not old enough to have 20 year old memories. 

I have four clear memories of the match.

1) We went 3-0 down in the first half to a David Platt hat-trick.  The home fans were going crazy as they took an insurmountable lead fired in by their hero.  They even managed to stop singing ‘Ooh, aah Paul McGrath, say ooh, ahh, Paul McGrath’ long enough to celebrate.

2) I heard my first bit of football fans baiting an opposition player.  The Holte End all shouting ‘She fell over, she fell over’ as Gary Mabbutt bent down to tie his bootlaces.  Bless ‘em, what erudite and witty banter those midlanders are capable of.

3) We got a goal back through Paul Stewart.  Which is a shame, ‘cos checking my facts on the internet I see it was actually Vinny Samways.  Oh well, it was one of them.  I’ll remember it a Stewart, historical can record it as Samways.

4) We got a second back through Paul Allen. 

I remember being disappointed not to see Gary Lineker score, but did have the twin honours of seeing Ian Hendon’s debut, coming on as sub, and getting Gordon Cowans’ autograph before the game.  Better get that on eBay. Be worth a fortune.

Our line-up that day

Thorstvedt, Edinburgh, Van Den Hauwe, Sedgley, Thomas, Mabbutt, Stewart, Samways, Moncur, Lineker, Allen.  Subs Gray, Hendon

How times have changed in the Premier League.  In fact, back then it was the First Division.   9 out of the starting 11 were English, with a Norwegian and a Welsh Belgian (Weird eh?) completing the group.

Spurs were the fourth best London side that season, finishing behind Crystal Palace and Wimbledon.   Arsenal bore the rest of the league into submission, holding us to two goalless draws in the league, conceding only 18 goals and losing once during their march to the title.

We got the better of them during that awe-inspiring FA Cup Semi-final.  Gazza and two goals from Mr ‘no yellow card in my career’ Lineker saw us spectacularly through to that ‘year ending in a 1’ Wembley final.

Aside from the FA Cup matches, we won only one more match that season, Lineker notching 2 more in a 2-0 win v Southampton in April, in what was to be only our second league win of 1991.

I can’t remember much else about my first match, other than being disappointed that we didn’t drag ourselves back into it for a 3-3 draw.

My mate and his Dad took me to the corresponding fixture the following season.   Of that I have no memories at all.  It ended 0-0 and must have been a truly dull affair.  Which, knowing my memory probably means it was the most exciting 0-0 in history, probably involving 8 red cards and a cameo from Ossie Ardiles in goal.

Did anyone else's Spurs live experiences start off on enemy territory?   Did anyone have surely hideous experience of seeing the boys from the Lane in action for the first time at Highbury? 

The Defensive Conundrum - The Stats

Who has been our best centre-back this season?  There is always a lot of discussion about who the best pairings have been, and who has been a liability. 

We’ve been through more than our fair share of central defenders over the years, some great, revered as demi-gods (until they refuse to sign a contract and leave us like the unwanted slags we are and move in next door with that red shirted lot).   Its ok, I’ll calm down.  Should never get myself started on good old Sulzeer Jeremiah.  Some of our defensive pillars have been slightly more wobbly, from the centre-back that doesn’t like tackling or heading the ball (thanks for Bunjevcevic, Glenn), through the ‘Ginger Pele’ who was just as dangerous in our own penalty area as he was in the opponents, and on to who out of our current crop? 

Who is the weakest link?  Gallas – just ‘cos of his overuse of his London A-Z bringing him from SW6 to N17 via N5?  King or Woodgate because of their lack of playing time? 

Looking at the players individually, there are a couple of clear winners in the shut out stakes.   The legend that is Ledley King has conceded a goal, on average, every 97.3 minutes this season in all competitions.  Excluding Corluka and Huddlestone with their solo match each partnering Bassong at the back and conceding a single goal, the second tightest defender we have is Michael Dawson averaging 86.2 minutes per net bulger.

We drop to a slightly more uncomfortable 65.7 and 63.7 minutes for Younes Kaboul and William Gallas respectively.  Assuming we want to ignore Steven Caulker’s 4 goals shipped in 90 minutes in our Carling Cup exit v Arsenal, we have ask Sebastien Bassong to shuffle forward to take his place at the bottom of this list.  Unfortunately, when I asked him to do this, he ended up so badly out of position he was sat on Ledley’s knee causing unknown damage.  He has been guaranteed to conspire to concede a goal at a rate of almost 2 per game (47.7 minutes)

But defending isn’t a solo sport, centre-back are partners.  At times, it may look as though they haven’t actually met each other, and the woeful injury record this season in this position has to have had an impact.  We’ve been without most of the above mentioned names at some point in the season; Jonathan Woodgate has been restricted to a goal-less 31 minutes in the San Siro against AC Milan. 

Our most frugal partnership this season has been the sadly underused King/Dawson pairing, who conceded only once in their three matches together.  At 270 mins/goal, they were more than twice as effective at keeping the opposition at bay as the next best pairing Dawson/Kaboul at 123 mins.  Michael and Younes have however had even less pitch time in the middle than the King/Dawson combo.

From the other possible permutations, out of a total of thirteen different combinations, only four combinations have been used for playing time greater than four full matches, displaying the pick’n’mix nature of our defensive team selection. 

Dawson appears again as key to our best defensive performances.  The Dawson/Gallas double act has been conceding at less than one goal per game (97.4 mins).  Dawson’s Batfink like wings become less like shields of steel when stood alongside Sebastien Bassong, when he becomes part out the worst coupling, allowing the opposition to breach our goal every 47.5 minutes. 

Our most commonly utilised duo – Gallas and Kaboul – manage to keep strong for an hour each time in between goals.  Again Bassong weakens a pairing by combining with Gallas to concede every 49.4 minutes. 

So, what do the stats tell us about our defensive options?  What conclusions can we draw? 

Firstly, we need to find a way to patch Ledley’s legs up and shove him out as often as we can.   We should be confident of conceding around 2/3 of the goals we currently let in if we could get King in the team on a regular basis.

Secondly, Dawson appears to be the rock on which we should be building our defence.  Yes, he seems to lose the flight of the ball now and again, and gets turned a little too easily at times, but if you ever watch a match and wonder how the f*ck did we just clear that ball from our area, chances are it was big Mike throwing his body in the way of the shot, or clearing the danger with a diving header an inch away from the oncoming striker’s boot.  He’s a good, honest, old-fashioned English centre half.  Don’t let him dwell on the ball too long, or he’ll be launching a 70 yard ball at Peter Crouch’s head.

Thirdly, Gallas is not the devil incarnate, and is putting in a properly decent shift for us this season.

Finally, it would appear that Bassong is (or should be) sixth choice centre-half, and would not have got the playing time he has (only Dawson and Gallas have played more this year) if King, Woodgate and Dawson hadn’t been sidelined.

Sadly, it may be time to say ‘Sebastien, you are the weakest link – now f*ck off’

Tottenham Origins – how I became a Lilywhite

Most football fans I know were brought up to support one team or another because that’s who their Dad supports, or that’s the local team.  It’s natural, it’s normal.  That’s how football fans are born.

I didn’t have that influence.  My Dad had absolutely no interest in football.  He still doesn’t.  He seems to think it strange that twenty-two grown men would want to run around in the rain chasing a ball.  Even more foreign to him was that people would be interested in watching twenty-two men charge about getting wet.

There wasn’t even the local team everyone was mad about to get me interested.  We lived in south Worcestershire, so there was no local team (don’t give me Kidderminster Harriers) to get excited about. 

I carried on, no allegiance to any team, unaware of what it was to be tied both in your heart and brain to one team.  Football was just what filled in the gaps between lessons at school. 

Until that day.  The day it happened.  The day I realised what football really was.

The date : July 1^st 1990

England v Cameroon, World Cup Quarter Final

I’d been aware of Italia ’90.  Someone bought me a Panini sticker album (I still need a Neil Webb, and a Columbia shiny).  I was 10 years old.  I remember it like it was only a couple of decades ago. 

That match was the start of a love affair that changed my life.  Watching Gary Lineker fire those two penalties past Thomas Nkono stirred the first feelings of patriotism within me.  All of a sudden I cared that En-ger-land were at the World Cup finals.  The tension throughout that match was gut wrenching.  I felt sweaty and sick it got to me that much (plus I’d probably scoffed a couple of packets of Opal Fruits and a Marathon which may or may not have had an influence). 

I was hooked and made no effort to escape capture.  By the time the Semi Final arrived three days later I knew the England squad inside out.  I watched along with the whole country as we came from behind with Lineker cancelling out Brehme’s opener, with Gazza’s tears flooding the pitch. 

Ok, ok, so it’s obvious how I awoke as an England fan, right?  But how did this turn itself into what is now a twenty year obsession with Tottenham Hotspur?

Lineker and Gascoigne were both Spurs men.  Simples.  One of England’s greatest strikers and a chubby Geordie lad both pulled on that slightly itchy Hummel / Holsten outfit when not on England duty. 

Decision made.  Unorthodox I grant you, but that’s how it was.  Since that heartbreaking penalty shootout in Turin I’ve been a Tottenham boy.  And now I'm a proud father to two boys that hopefully will follow the ‘normal’ route to finding their club and do as their Dad says.  They are 21 months, and 3 weeks so I’ve got time to iron out any signs of straying from the noble path.

Looking back, it’s scary thinking about what could have been.  If Gary hadn’t been so adept at finding the back of the net from 12 yards, maybe David Platt or Steve Bull would have scored those penalties v Cameroon and become my hero.  That way, supporting Villa or Wolves I could have fitted in at school and beyond, being normal and supporting a local team.  I’m sure I’d have enjoyed the excitement of football outside the top flight, or mid-table mediocrity.  I should think myself lucky to be alive – that’s quite a bullet I dodged all those years ago.

How did you find yourself forever betrothed to Spurs?  Did anyone else colour themselves Lilywhite after Italia ‘90

The only way is Spurs.

I'm new to this blogging thing

Evenin' all. 

24 hours after our glorious goalless draw against AC Milan (making us the first team to stop Milan scoring both home and away in a season since our friends up the road at the Emirates did the same in last 16 of the Champions League 2007-08 season) and we're sitting proud as the first English team into the quarter finals of this years competition.  Seeing both Liverpool and Man City both lose first legs in the Europa League is making Spurs fans even more smug about their boys recent exploits.  I've even almost forgotten about Gomes going for one of his magical mystery tours around the penalty box before Big Billy Gallas saved us from going behind.

More will follow, but I'm yet to work out if this blogging thing even works!

COYS

Chunky