Buy a ticket and you might DL. As they say you have got to be it to win it. Chelski proved that last year, based on the quality of your football you should have gone out in the semi (or before) but your lot had their lottery win. You never know, lightening might strike twice.
Thanks for your kind remarks & welcome. I love reading your posts (well, most of them) but was to shy to join in. How I would have loved this technology in 'my day'. Instead it was just scrapbooks, which I still have. Wish I could share the cartoons of the day with you but lack the expertise, unfortunately. HIAG: You often make me laugh- Thank YOU for that. DISTRICT LINE: Yes, certainly '66 but especially the '67 CUP FINAL- SPURS 2 Chelsea 1 That was a night to remember, kings of the cockney final as the papers called it. PABIRD: Those names are my earliest memories too. I still have a postcard of Ted Ditchburn who remains my favourite ever keeper. Glad I'm not the oldest on here! Cheers.
I was 6 when a neighbour said " I bet Steve Archibald scores more than Clive Allen." Allen went to Arsenal and Archie came to us. I can't remember if Arch scored more that year but it was that which took me to Spurs. So 38.
51. I may or may not have a wealth of knowledge, but I've definitely had a lot of good times. (Though maybe if I hadn't had so many good times, I'd be clearer on whether I have a wealth of knowledge.) I pity the young 'uns in the US, to tell you the truth. Seems like a very un-fun era compared to mine.
Some great memories here...especially the one from Maggie. I'm 45 (when my 14 yr old daughter was a 3 she asked me how long before I was born did the dinosaurs die! ) ...my mum married a violent pig so Spurs were my life as a kid. I had a tiny radio and from the age of 9 I listened to saturday afternoon footie on radio 2 (I think it was radio 2 back then). I remember crying as a 9 yr old when we were relegated in the 70's, and when colin lee scored 4 on his debut when we won 9 nil. And I thought I'd died and gone to heaven when we signed Ossie and Ricky. My first match was the 81 semi final replay at highbury...3 nil...what a night. And as for the 1981 cup replay! The 84 UEFA cup final was a great night even though I only saw it on TV...The whole ground chanting Danny Thomas's name after hi penalty miss! I went regularly until I had to leave home at 16/17 but always followed the team on radio and TV. Was able to go again in my late teens and early 20's semi regularly...went to see our 3rd round FA cup game in 91 away to Blackpool for my birthday that year with some mates...the worst game I ever saw - was played in a near hurricane and non stop rain and it was so cold but was great fun ... we went on to win the cup. I stopped going (but continued to follow spurs) when my baby son died in 1994. Got with my misses in 96 and our daughters were born in 97 and 2002. Never went again until 2004 ... a couple of months later I took my then 6 year old daughter to the lane ... her first goal was scored by Ledley and me and her mum danced with her to celebrate she understood my love of spurs. Both my daughters (14 and 9 yrs) come to the lane once or twice a season and at the moment I can afford to go to another 4 or 5 matches a season with mates. They've seen us win 9-1 v wigan (I still can't believe I got to take them to that match...it was my daughters birthday too). They were also at Martin Jols last match, Ramos's last home match, Harry's first match and Harry's last match. My eldest would boo when she heard the word arsenal as a baby...Our nearest train station is woolwich Arsenal and when the train announcer said it she'd boo ... always made me laugh....shes Tottenham trough and through ... my youngest is a wednesday fan like her mum and tottenham is her second love. For my 40th birthday my kids bought me a tottenham dog tag and chain...my misses got it engraved with "2 girls and 1 team" for me. All told I could not have chosen a better family nor a better team to spend my life with! COYS
Great post, great memories. Your girls sound fantastic, love the idea of the little one booing the word Arsenal .
@ Maggie Blanchflower - life without a smile is a miserable place to be. @ remembercolinlee - I found your story touching and quite moving. I grew up in Tottenham, went to infants, juniors and secondary school, there. I've told my story a couple of times already, so won't repeat it. I was fortunate enough to get taken to see Spurs from the late 60s and throughout the early and middle 70s. So many great players from those days: Peters, Mullery, Gilzean, Beale, England, knowles, Jennings, Coates, etc. My favourite was Martin Chivers. I saw him walking down the High Road in the mid 70s, and he wrote his autograph on the top of a comic. I was about 12, and he was like a giant to me, with massive frizzy hair! I was behind the goal that Ralph Coates nodded the winner, at the old Wembley, in '71, when we beat Norwich in the League Cup Final. I also saw all of the home games, including the final, for the UEFA Cup, in 1972, when we drew 1-1 with Wolves, to win on aggregate (3-1, I think). On those days when I didn't go to the match, I used to kick a ball up against the wall in our back garden, listening to the roar of the crowd (the ground was only a mile away from where I lived), and imagining that I was Chivers, scoring all the goals. Great memories.
In the mid 80's went into a hotel bar in Brookmans Park in Hertfordshire and Big Chiv was the owner of the place. Nearly fainted with pleasure at being served a pint by one of my absolute heroes. Him and Martin Peters were real idols in those days.
I grew up in Wood Green and close friends with the Bennett family and often when in my mates house Les B and maybe Ted D would drop in Great chat with Les very laid back and Ted giving the impression he was one tough man Later when I was around 17/18 years old my father used to get tickets to the big fights from the same bookie as did Clff Jones and I would end up sitting next to Cliff on the night, Cliff loved fight nights and was always fun and sociable to be with
Bloody hell HIAG - apart from the location growing up (I was in Streatham, although my wife was born and raised in a house in Park Lane!!) we almost mirror..... Guess my real favs were Peters and Jennings to be honest, but Chivers was up there and I can still clearly see him running on to a Gillie flick and smashing it into the corner of the net. He scored so many like that. I was taken to the 67 Final by an uncle, but my first game at home was Stoke in the 67/68 season. My dad had died some years previously so I plagued my mum to take me across town. Oh, how the new Victoria Line made life so much easier.... By 69/70 I was at every home game and some away - and eventually ended up standing with a couple of girls (from Walthamstow) who used to drape the Spurs flag over the top of the tunnel. By '71 I was travelling over on my tod and continued for the next 12 years - although later moved over to the Shelf. A variety of circs - domestic and working abroad - meant I then didn't get to the Lane for a few years. But on returning to the UK in 2003 it was just about the first thing I organised back into my life. (My memory of Coates goal v Norwich was different - I thought he scored from outside the box in the 73 Final. 71 was Villa and Chivers got 2) Nearly forgot - great memory of Peters attending WH Smiths in Streatham High Rd signing copies of The Glory Game. (what a great book that is) The queues went for about 100 yds out of the store!!!
You're right, it was the '73 Cup Final. It was a headed goal by Coates. Not so long ago, probably only a couple of years before he died, I met him at the Golden Cockerel Club, before a game (against Sunderland, that we won 1-0), and told him that I was behind the goal in which he scored the winning goal. As he was shaking my hand, I said "I was 10." He immediately let go of my hand and said, "you bastard!" He was a very nice bloke.
It wasn't a headed goal by Coates, it was a shot from about 18/20 yds. I was there also BTW First game I remember seeing was the 1961 Cup final on TV, and have been going to the Lane since 1962. Many great memories, etc.
My father took me as very small boy at the very end of the sixties . I was too small to have any memory of Greaves still in an Spurs shirt. I am told I cried when he went to West Ham. The Chivers, Gilzean ,Mullery side was first I can really remember. The whole family would come up from deepest South London Suburbia, just before the countryside started . The girls would visit my auntie, granny in Crouch End (they had a couple of hairdressing shops in the high street, it was more hippie than posh then) and my father and I would go to the game. When "Nice one Cyril" was on Top of the Pops ,It was my proudest moment. I stated going with school friends to WHL the year we were in the old second diversion. Two buses from deepest Bromley/Croydon area would take about 4/5 hours to get there but cost next to nothing (child fairs) I would save my dinner money and go and see the near derbies , Brighton, Charlton, Fulham, Leyton etc. Never forget the thrashing of Bristol Rovers. Then Teenage Rebellion kicked in, music, girls, punk, new wave , sadly trying to be cool .
