Superstition

I have just read that Juande Ramos: "is reputed to avoid using the telephone on the day of a game, puts his right foot first on to the turf before each match and would have avoided touching or looking at the Carling Cup until it was won or lost at Wembley on Sunday."

I'm glad these things affect the elite as well. My boy has taken to wearing several layers of Spurs shirts in a particular order at each match. Lucky we don't play in the height of summer. He also has a flag that's lucky for goals and one that ensures we win. I had to take that one to Wembley on Sunday and take a picture of it to send to him.

I used to have a lucky scarf that I'd had since I was a boy. In those days you got boys' scarves so this one barely went round my neck. it was moth eaten and had been chewed by my dog and I used to trail it out of the window of the car on the way to a game. One day a couple of seasons ago it worked its way loose and was in some puddle somewhere by the time I'd noticed. Once I got over the trauma of realising that all future defeats would be my sole responsibility, I decided to buy a similar scarf. This one, though, is thicker and hotter. It's a right pain actually but I still have to take it to games.

My girl (why doesn't this surprise me?) had a cup cake on Sunday while watching the match. She rolled and rolled the wrapper in her hand until it resembled a small rabbit dropping. This wasn't deliberate; it was just one of those nervous things you do. Apparently it was down to this 'lucky poo' that we won and this now has to be handled on the occasion of each game.

All the talk in the press about Ramos' genius is a nonsense. So long as no-one phones him and we have poo and scarves and multiple shirts all in the right order, we can't fail to keep on winning.