we woz there!

• Equals most goals scored in prem league
• most goals scored by a team in one half
• Defoe equals most goals scored by one player in prem
• Spurs biggest victory in top flight
• Most goals scored since 1977 (9-0 v Bristol Rovers- I was there too)

To say the half dozen Wigan fans that were there looked dejected after the game is something of an understatement. I felt sorry for them as their mini bus collected them, ready for the long drive back to Lancashire. We waved to them but for some reason they didn't wave back. To their credit some actually applauded. I was grateful as my involvement in the victory was at least as signigficant as Defoe's, but who gets all the glory?

I hear that Scharner (who scored after controlling the ball with his hand, having taken lessons from Theirry Henry in midweek) has magnanomously come out and said he's happy for the game to be replayed.

White Hart Lane

This week I have been to Wales, London and places near to me in the grim north.

Here are a few photos from our visit to the Lane on Friday. I know the adulation only perpetuates the prima donna arrogance of the players but I can't help myself. I loved the tour. The snippets of info from the guides and the ability to sit in Harry's chair, on Ledley's bench seat in the changing room and at the mike in the press conference room made it 11 quid well worth spending. Typically, my girl tried to get more than she paid for and was told off twice. Once for going on to the pitch (mercifully NOT in the style of Erica Roe) and secondly for sneaking into the toilets in the changing rooms. Her verdict on that was 'urrggghhh, it smells really bad.' This may be because the only toiletry products in sight were on the wall, squirty Head and Shoulders containers. If we do ever make the stupidly named Champions' league maybe they'll up the quality and take a leaf out of Chelski's book and install lockers in the changing rooms. Apparently in these they have a system where aftershave is sprayed in a mist on the players as they open their locker doors.

Interesting facts:

• Spurs have the only 11 man plunge bath left in the League
• We had Champions' league standard lights fitted last summer at a cost of 12 million quid
• The original brass cockerel has dents in it where Gazza shot at it the week before scoring against Les Arses without a boot on
• The away dressing room has a low ceiling, poor lighting, no board, not tables and rubbish showers. All of this is deliberately unsporting
• Arse Wenger once complained that his match side seat wasn't heated

White Supremacist Lane

We're used to the odd Chelsea "fan" giving the Nazi salute at the Lane even now (My grandad didn't of course when he came with us a few months ago!). This is something else though. I've seen pics of the England team doing the Nazi salute in an international in germany but I had no idea this had happened. I think it speaks for itself and the various ironies don't really need spelling out.

You can read the match report here:

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/englandfootball/story/0,9565,540784,00.html

an extract: "having seen several of the matches that England plays, as each December comes around, one inference may perhaps be advanced without harshness, and this is that football is a game more suited to the Anglo-Saxon and the Teuton than to the Latin race."

vertigo

Tension gone, the win at the Lane yesterday against a surpirsingly rubbish West Ham means that all of a sudden we can all breathe that sigh of relief that we've been waiting to let out for months. I'm grateful it didn't have to wait till May. I've been all doom and gloom this season so the boy, my girl and my Spurs buddies will all be grateful too. After Blackburn last Saturday it looked as if we might go on a bit of a dodgy run but no; London clubs no longer have some kind of hoo doo. We lost only to Fulham this season and, frankly, they're such a fluffy and likeable club that I don't begrudge them the points at all (with or without Andy 'I'm not nearly as good as I think I am and I dive a lot' Johnson).

Now we can only look up. We're 8th. What a stupid, beguiling game this is. COYS.

New Ground

Well that didn't take long. I'm looking forward to seeing this at the Fulham game. I'm a bit worried about the transport infrastructure to be honest. It's hard enough to park at the moment. Sometimes we dump the car up there at 11ish the go off and do the pub lunch thing. This helps us make a quick getaway to the north. We still get home very late and if it's a 4pm kick off on a Sunday then we don't get home till midnight which means that school the next day is tough for both me and the boy.

If City of Manchester stadium is anything to go by the car parking will be crap and they'll increase the restrictions in the whole area.

The train has always been a rubbish option and I can't see how they'll improve it to accommodate the extra 15-25,ooo people White Hart Lane will get.

I was reading the other day that unlike other football grounds White Hart Lane was never offcially named- it was just the name that caught on. Man City fans still sing about being from Maine Road. I hope we can follow their example and just insist on calling it WHL rather that the Pepsi Arena or whatever. After all, everyone still recognises that les Arses play at the Library.

Noooooooooo

From the Enfield Independent:
"TOTTENHAM have spoken to Milton Keynes Dons about the possibility of moving into their stadium if White Hart Lane is to be redeveloped. With the recent good form of the club seeing their worldwide fan base grow, Spurs have been considering expansion of White Hart Lane.
The stadium currently has a capacity of just over 36,000 but the plan is to increase the size to 50,000 to bring it into line with other top European sides.

However, if the expansion does go ahead, it would leave Juande Ramos' men homeless for at least two season while work at the ground takes place. Many possibilites have been viewed - and rejected - over recent months, including a potential ground share at West Ham's Upton Park.
The Football Association has ruled out Wembley as a club venue, while the new Olympic stadium has also been dismissed - after the games in 2012 it will be reduced from 80,000 to 25,000 and has been designated as an athletics only ground.

Now, with options running low, the Spurs board have made contact with the Dons about a potential ground share. Dons owner Pete Winklemen revealed in the News of the World: "If Tottenham decide to redevelop on site it seems they will need temporary accomodation and they have had a chat about using our stadium." The League One side moved into stadium:mk last year and the ground has a capacity of 22,000, enough to compensate all season ticket holders at White Hart Lane."

22K? Season ticket holders only? What the...? I am not happy.

100 up

Yesterday saw Spurs score their hundredth goal of the season at White Hart Lane (and their hundredth and first). The 2-0 win over Portsmouth was tinged with disappointment in a way. A visit to the Lane these days comes with the anticipation of a 7 or 8 goal thriller. In fact there have been nearly 20 more goals at the Lane than at any other ground this season. Wednesday's 4-4 with Chelsea had the boy on the verge of heart failure and it was as much as I could do to stop myself from uttering shameful curse words. This, of course, would not be appropriate at a football ground. They say that being a Spurs fan is the most stressful but, despite all this, I'd sooner see a 4-4 than a nil-nil and I'd much rather see us win 6-4 than 2-0. And I'd definitely rather experience the dreaded Spurs inconsistency than the consistent losing that Derby fans have had to endure this season.