The Lane, The Pride and The Flag

Arrived at Heathrow at 5.30am only to discover that my son’s flight from Oslo had been cancelled because of heavy snow. Fortunately the Norwegians are pretty efficient and by 9am the airport had reopened and my son was on his way. Only problem was whether he would make it to the Lane in time. By midday I was outside the Bricklayers to meet the first of my ticket contacts. The saga of my tickets is a long one but it all worked out well……………..eventually. I must admit that by the end of it all, I felt like some shady character wheeling and dealing (bit like my brother in real life really). Once I had secured the 2nd Man U ticket and the first Derby one, I was able to relax a bit and downed a few pints at The Bricklayers. At 2.00pm my son arrived (yeah), followed shortly after my my nephew. The Bricklayers had well and truly warmed up with several rousing versions of the Adebayor song. Then it was off down the high street for yet another ticket dealing rendezvous and then we were set.

(By the Paxton - waiting for Miguel, Jezza’s mate, who had some tickets for me. Thought we’d be easy to spot by holding up the flag…….. or so we thought)

On the way into the ground Robbert Jol came up to me, having spotted the flag. We were also stopped by some Koreans who wanted a photo with the flag.

(Nice to meet up with Robbert Jol)

Then it was into the West Stand (not to be recommended) and an attempt to find someway of getting my son next to me. As it stood, he was in a great seat in Block 9, and I was at the front of Block 10. We checked my seat first, and found that the guy next to me was a lone Korean and we negotiated with him to swap seats with my son. It was looking good…….. but 5 minutes later he was back saying he had changed his mind. Bastard! Next to him was an empty seat and then an Indian (?) man with his two sons……. who showed no interest in the game whatsoever. Jeez, these seats cost 65 pds each and there are no concessions for kids in the West Stand. What a waste of money. 15 minutes into the game, the seat next to the Korean was still empty so I rushed over to Block 9, got my son and then hoped that no one would come to claim that seat. Despite our attempts to get the Korean and the kids to hold our flag, they refused, and we were left with a tiny space to hang it (upside down as it turned for the first 15 mins).

(Behind my son, the daytrippers, who sat motionless, expressionless and silent throughout. They wouldn’t even hold up the flag!)

It was oh so different with the real fans at Derby. I suppose it’s the one thing that pisses me off as a fan – daytrippers that go to a ground to savour the atmosphere but do nothing to enhance it. As far as I am concerned, they take away the chance of real fans seeing the game. The Korean sat motionless and expressionless throughout the game, and the kids never stopped playing with their toy cars.

The match itself was fantastic, until the last 15 seconds. Spurs should have scored a second but once again it was the substitutions that were decisive and gave the advantage to the opposition. I don’t know, it may be naïve of me to think this, but I really hate changing a winning team. For me, bringing on a substitute is best done when losing and hoping that things can be turned around. The final result felt like a defeat and once again we had failed against a top 4 team. The ref added on more than the alloted 3 mins, but this being Man U, it was always going to be that way.

The Derby trip was excellent. One of the better new grounds, not too far from the city centre. The home fans were friendly and we had no problems taking photos of us with the flag outside the main entrance.

There seems to be a fairly large Derby-based contingent of Spurs supporters (the Dave Mackay connection?) and the atmosphere inside the ground was excellent. It will be a shame to see Derby go down cos at least they fill their ground, unlike Boro, Blackburn and others. Spurs, to be honest, were appalling, and the scoreline really flattered us.

To anyone based in HK and planning to see a Spurs game, do your best to see an away game. Being with committed fans away from home gives you the real feeling of what it’s like being a Tottenham fan.

Thanks must be extended to James and Hung, for helping out with the tickets, and thanks to my son who has yet to see Spurs lose :-)