Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

Sugar, it seems all our comments on matches since beating Villa 2-0 in 2016 have been erased! Luckily, I have a short-form backup for all that matches that have been wiped:











And that brings us up-to-date enough to talk about our latest match

[EJG1980]

A text book example the other night of paying for not taking our chances. Can’t criticise much about the performance apart from the finishing, should have been well in the lead when West Ham scored with their first shot after 70 mins (incredible finish though, he won’t hit one better than that for the rest of his career).

Poch was right after the match saying that on most days, we’d have won that match 3-1 or 4–1, but unfortunately today was one of those days in front of goal. At least Son managed to find one moment of magic (another amazing goal) to make it a frustrating draw rather than a really frustrating loss, but it’s a shame it happened the day after Arsenal and Chelsea both dropping two points. A little bit of ground lost on Liverpool too.

Still, can’t win ‘em all, and I think the race for the CL spots is going to be up and down, back and forth, all the way to the end of the season. I expect most of the first eleven will be rested for the cup and then hopefully we can get back to winning ways in the league.

[fallenangle]

Agree with you about the WH match - could and should have won but we didn't take the chances and dropped points as a result.

I actually predicted we'd have trouble with WH before the match in a post that has now been lost. They do seem to be quite often our Achilles heel no mater what their current form.

Comfortable win yesterday against Wimbledon in the FA Cup. HK scoring two and JV getting a good, rare goal for him too. The opposition played well and could even have scored but, from the highlights, it looked like we were always in control and when they tired Spurs put them away without too much sweat.

[EJG1980]

Yup, you could tell we weren't playing at full throttle and were trying to get through without overexerting ourselves (while still being professional and not treating Wimbledon lightly). A couple of moments from Wimbledon, with their great shot in the first half, and they had a good five minutes at the start of the second half. Really comfortable for us apart overall though and we turned up the gas a little bit to put them away with a few quick fire goals.

Speaking of which, Harry Kane has now gone ahead of Teddy Sheringham in number of goals in all competitions. He needs two more to go ahead of him purely in terms of league goals.

01 - Jimmy Greaves - 1961-70 - 266 goals in 379 appearances
02 - Bobby Smith - 1955-64 - 208/317
03 - Martin Chivers - 1968-76 - 174/367
04 - Cliff Jones - 1958-68 - 159/378
05 - Jermain Defoe - 2004-14 - 143/363
06 - George Hunt - 1930-37 - 138/198
07 - Len Duquemin - 1947-57 - 134/307
08 - Alan Gilzean - 1964-74 - 133/439
09 - Harry Kane - 2011-?? 125/192
10 - Teddy Sheringham - 1992-2003 - 124/277

If he stays injury free for the rest of the season, there's every chance he could beat Jermaine Defoe's total by the end of the season, which would be quite amazing.

Newport County away in the 4th round of the FA Cup. Can't complain about that at all, another lower league team and a great chance to progress.

[fallenangle]

There are some extraordinary stats in that list and I can not see HK ever beating Jimmy Greaves' record. The one to beat for me would be Martin Chivers (82 goals less than JG). He was the Spurs player every schoolboy at the time, even non-Spurs fans, tried to emulate, particularly his trademark long throw.

HK is a better player overall than MC ever was but as a goal scorer MC was a real machine, not pretty but effective. I see HK being much more like him in front of goal than any other past Spurs' players I know.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i89YanFRUtc

[EJG1980]

Great video. Martin Chivers was before my time, but many of the Spurs fans I've talked to at matches over the years have referred to him as their favourite player. He's quite often the half time guest at home matches though (most recently against Southampton at Wembley) and he always comes across as a good laugh. Cliff Jones and Alan Mullery are the other two from the 60s & 70s that regularly pop up.

Couple of small stadium related bits 'n' bobs: Bill Nicholson's (and his wife's) ashes were removed from under the WHL pitch before the stadium was demolished, and were recently re-interred in the new stadium where the new pitch overlaps with the location of the old pitch (somewhere just in front of the new "Park Lane" stand). Story about it on the Spurs web site.

Speaking of the new south stand, the central part is now mostly at full height. It's going to be a monster of a stand! Can't wait to see it full up with Spurs fans (hopefully including me and my brother, if we can get our season tickets in that stand).

[EJG1980]

An excellent win today, really good performance with some lovely flowing football. Some of our best moves didn't actually result in goals, but we saved the best for last, our fourth was an absolute joy. Had we won 1-0 with just that goal it'd have been worth the price of admission.

Son was on fire today, which seems to be a regular occurrence this season! During the build up to one of Kane's goals (I can't remember which one it was now!) he did a sensational flick and turn to beat an Everton player, had the whole stadium gasping. I'd have to say that today was Dembele's best performance of the season, he looked like the Dembele of last season, great performance.

We did get a little bit of luck as Kane was offside for our second goal (my brother says it was only one of his feet that was off, but off is off) but I'm certain we would have won comfortably even if that had been ruled out. Speaking of Kane, it's quite funny that he's scored all these amazing goals for us, but the two that put him ahead of Sheringham as our top PL scorer are an offside tap-in and a scuffed miss-hit that bobbled in

Southampton away next, then the FA Cup, and then a run of really big matches: Man Utd, Liverpool, Arsenal and Juventus. If we can avoid defeat and hopefully pick up a few wins from those, we should really be flying and in great shape going into the business end of the season. One step at a time though, gotta get three points at St. Mary's first!

[fallenangle]

Yes that DA back heel to Eriksen so he could shoot was really clever, quick thinking and the lead up play before that was excellent too. I'm sure the back heel will feature in future clips at the start of MotD.

Great win and that puts Spurs right back up there on the same points as Liverpool and only three points behind Chelsea and MU. If MC beat Liverpool today we could even go up to fourth on GD.

Southampton should mean more points before those other, on paper, tougher matches. Fingers crossed.

[Mayhem]

Not related to our football, but figured it’s a good place to ask, given the Spurs fans here heh. I go to the London NFL games each year, and they are now swapping to the new WHL next season for one match. Does anyone have a seat map idea for the new stadium? So when season tickets go on sale, I may have an idea where some good places to pick seats may be. Is there any truth in the rumour that Spurs season ticket holders will have an option to buy a ticket for the NFL match? Also, what is it like getting to the stadium via Seven Sisters, as that is probably how I’m getting there (my train gets into Victoria)?

[EJG1980]

Not related to our football, but figured it’s a good place to ask, given the Spurs fans here heh. I go to the London NFL games each year, and they are now swapping to the new WHL next season for one match. Does anyone have a seat map idea for the new stadium? So when season tickets go on sale, I may have an idea where some good places to pick seats may be. Is there any truth in the rumour that Spurs season ticket holders will have an option to buy a ticket for the NFL match? Also, what is it like getting to the stadium via Seven Sisters, as that is probably how I’m getting there (my train gets into Victoria)?

There's no detailed seat map yet (we should get one when our season ticket renewals start) but this is the general layout:



I'd imagine that the best atmosphere will be in the single tier south stand (the capacity has been tweaked since that map was released, it's up to 17,500 now). I've never been to an NFL match though, so I don't know if sitting along the sidelines would be preferable.

We're just having the one match this year, but we've got a ten year agreement with the NFL that'll see two matches per year after that. No idea about the rumours that Spurs season ticket holders will get priority to buy tickets to NFL matches, I guess that's another thing we might find out when we're doing our renewals.

Getting to the stadium from Seven Sisters is really easy, if you don't mind a 25 minute walk (it's the route I nearly always take to WHL). Just exit the station and walk straight down the high road and you'll end up at WHL. As the new stadium is so much taller than the old one, you'll probably be able to see it above all the other buildings when you exit the station in future.

If you don't fancy the walk you can catch one of the many busses right outside the station that go down the high road to the stadium. You can also go to the national rail platform at Seven Sisters and catch an overground train to WHL station, which is a couple of minutes walk from the stadium.

[Mayhem]

Cheers... given the details about the NFL season renewals is being published this coming Thursday, I guess I will be buying my NFL pass before your renewal then �� so yes, sounds as if you won’t get any picks before we do then.

[Mayhem]

Turns out the purchasing of tickets for the NFL game at new WHL isn't until April now when the seats are all in place, and you aren't guaranteed a seat this year even if you have a season ticket *roll eyes* when do you guy normally have to renew your Spurs season tickets, as that rumour still hasn't gone away yet.

[EJG1980]

I assume it's going to be late April / early May. It was 2nd of May that they released the renewal details last year and you usually have to have renewed before the start of June (I think).

I'm hoping they might release the detailed seating plan for the new stadium a bit earlier than that though.

[Mayhem]

They probably will release the plan sooner. The NFL aren't actually scheduling the ticket sale until the actual seats are nailed down in place *roll eyes*

[EJG1980]

Can't complain about the result today, we were poor and Southampton deserved their point. Could have been worse too as the young Southampton striker who came on (I forget his name) missed what was pretty much a tap in with a few minutes to go. We also could have nicked it with a Kane chance in stoppage time that, while it wasn't a guilt edged chance, you'd expect him to score with the form he's in.

I don't usually second guess manager's choices (as I'm just a twat in the stands ) but I was a little disappointed that with Eriksen missing through illness we went with Sissoko to replace him, instead of Lamela. Sissoko is a hard worker and willing runner but Lamela is the natural replacement if you want to replace what you lose with Eriksen missing.

A tad disappointing, but off days happen. Some big big matches coming up in the league and Europe for us to bounce back in!