I literally cannot describe how good last night was, it was an absolute honour to have been there, not only for Ledley but seeing some of the old favourites back was just a joy to behold. For those of you who were unfortunate to not be there, I'm going to try and give a full summary of what happened - so you may need a spare 10-15 minutes! I always sit in Park Lane, Block 35, Row 11 and then usually in the seats around 118-123 (I'm hoping the club give me a ****ing season ticket there soon, only been sitting in them for 10 years!) though for last nights match, I decided I'd sit in the West Stand, mainly because the view of the game would be better and I'd be able to get some snaps of the players (which I did ). Got there an hour before kick off, usually I get in 5 minutes prior as I hate the wait around but obviously this was definite exception. After about 5 minutes of taking my seat, the keepers were the first out for some training, Brad and Archer going to the Paxton End, Robbo and Sulli over to the Park Lane end. Naturally Robbo got a huge amount of applause, the England No 1 chant was in full flow. After literally 5 minutes of training, Robbo and Sulli decided that was enough and went to the fans to sign autographs and take photos, Robbo even jumped the barracades to get to some of he disabled fans and smaller children. Then the moment came when Ledley and everyone else came out, the stadium erupted as expected and the "Oh Ledley, Ledley" chants rang out. Paul Coyte came out too and was interviewing a lot of Ledley's team, including the likes of Crouchy, Davids, Ginola, Tainio, Anderton plus others. In the meantime, there were also video messages on the jumbo tron of current and former players who couldn't make the game, the likes of Keano, Dembele, Chadli, Woodgate all featured. After the pre-match training and warm ups, the players went down the tunnel ready for kick off. As they re-emerged, Ledley was given a guard of honour along with a couple of trophies and gifts. Kick off started and the Guests were pulling out all the tricks, Davids looked like he'd gone back ten years and was really showboating which was exciting the crowd though Ginola wasn't going to be out-flaired so easily, Anderton was spraying passes better than 90% of the footballers in the Prem, Teddy and Berba looked like a dream partnership at times, Teddy always finding space and being as dangerous as always and Berba was showing that silky touch that adored him to us all (got a great reception by the way, which was nice, he acknowledged and appreicated it too). After a few end-to-end plays, the guests then got a corner, which resulted in Kaboul and Dawson comically rugby tackling King to the ground, Webb blew for the pen and the man himself stepped up and slotted home which resulted in one of the biggest cheers for a goal I've seen at the Lane, it was incredible. After that Spurs XI picked up the pace momentarily, Eriksen was slotting passes through and Ade was playing about with the defenders, Perry made a great block from an Eriksen shot and Sulli showed that he was still only fresh from recently retiring himself, pulling off some great saves. Ledley was also typically brilliant at the back, showing his composed reading of the game and got a couple of blocks in too. The guest XI then got back into it and an old piece of set-piece trickery returned. A corner came about, Anderton went over to take the corner and it hit it superbly into Teddy's path who got a shot off, though the Brazilian beast read it and got the block in. It got a massive cheer though, bringing back some old memories. Then the Spurs XI got a break and Ade was brought down by Michael Brown and/ or Ledley, couldn't exactly see from where I was sitting. Ade took the pen himself, hit it low in the bottom left corner beating Sulli, though Webb said there was encroaching so Ade had to re-take, putting it in the same place and again beating Sulli. Game on. The guests then got back into the groove and one of the games funny moments came about, as I mentioned earlier Edgar was pulling off trick after trick, one too many for Kaboul's liking who ended up lifting up Edgar from behind and carrying him for about 10 yards before putting him down, the crowd were laughing and the atmosphere was buzzing. Along with Ledley's chants throughout the halves, Teddy, Ginola, Davids, Parker, Crouchy, Berbatov, Chimbonda were all getting support from the crowd with their old songs. As the guests pressed (mixed with a few counters from the Spurs XI), they went 2-1 up through a Berba-Teddy combo. Berba picked up the ball, came down the line, played into Teddy who did what he does best, slotting it past the keeper with ease. Crowd erupted again. (Any chance we can get Teddy out of retirement and just bring back Berba? They genuinely looked great! Lol). Not long after we went (I say "we" as everyone was a Ledley XI fan last nigth) 3-1 up. Anderton with a neat bit of footwork got a shot off which came back to Teddy who again slotted home. Happy days. Half time came and there was another bit of history being re-lived, Tony Parks came out along with some old greats including Big Chiv, Graham Robberts, Mark Falco and Mickey Hazard, accompanied by Ledley and his boy. They faced off in a penalty shootout against a few local MP's, who all came out to comical boos though it did include well known Spurs fan David Lammy. It was a recreation of the 84 UEFA Cup Final where each penalty scored resulted in money going towards Ledley's charity. The legends won, 5-3 I think in the end and again, just like in the pre-match training, was accompanied by more video messages for Ledley including van der Vaart, Vertonghen, Paulinho and Boris Johnson (may have got some of the names mixed up with the ones in the pre-match training but hey-ho). Wholesale changes were made at the break, a lot of youngsters replaced first teamers and everyone with the exception for Ledley and Tainio (who was a first half sub for Parker) were replaced for Ledley's side. Robbo took place between the sticks and as you can imagine, the whole stadium was rocking out the England's number one chant. Throughout the game Robbo was also leading some of the chants, as he did back in his playing days for us which was fantastic. Not long after kick off the Spurs XI scored through Nathan Oduwa who scored a brilliant little dink over the on-rusing Robbo. It got comical boos but take nothing away from the lad, it was an exqusite finish. Though that again riled up the Ledley XI and soon afterwards, Crouchy set up Louis Saha who cut inside for a good finish past Archer. The crowd were loving it, not only were we seeing some great football on show but the atmosphere amongst players and fans alike was amazing. Not long after Louis' goal, the moment came to say goodbye to the greatest defender I've and sure many others have seen. Ledley's number was up on the board and every player on both sides applauded and shook his hand, it was emotional as the crowd knew this was the last time we'd be seeing Ledley on a pitch. He got an amazing cheer, chants of "stand up if you love Ledley" rang around alongside his old "oh Ledley, Ledley". He was replaced by a former recent partner of his - Bassong - who took place to partner Chimbonda in the middle of defence. Freund was warming up right infront of me when a mother and child asked if he could sign their shirt, which he duly did, jumping the barracade and smiling for a couple of photos while also joking that he's already knackered from just warming up. As he entered the fray, you could see the banter he was having with his compatriot Holtby (who produced moment of the night which I'll get too soon) and at one point went in two footed on Holtby (harmlessly though) in which Holtby feined an injury, rolling on the ground before jumping back up. He then got his own back and wiped Freund out, resulting in loads of laughter. Saha netted his second after the laughter, beating Archer again with a strong shot into the corner. Capoue netted for the Spurs XI with a good finish, and that wasn't Etienne's only contribution to the night. At one stage he picked up the ball, nut megged Paul Stalteri and then as he easily beat Paul for pace, kept turning his head around, sticking his tongue out to Stalteri which brought more laughter. Then he flipped his attentions to Bassong, Bassong looked quite tired, maybe fatigued from the season he had with Norwich and Etienne was trying to mug him off, twice trying a one-two and running past Bassong but the follow up pass didn't reach him. Then the best bit of the night, Howard Webb - who first of all I'd like to thank for reffing, I was surprised at the fact the country's best known ref was going to officiate a testimonial - decided to take the ball in the middle of the park, drop a few shoulders and try a trick or two, only for Holtby to come in from behind and completely take him out. The crowd were pissing themselves and Webb and Holtby shared a hug afterwards. Webb was brilliant throughout, Park Lane got him to wave and even asked him for a song, he didn't start one off but did pretend to orchastrate for a few seconds. The crowd then charted "you're Spurs and you know you are" to which I could see he laughed at. Webb's linesman also gave his flag to a supporter (not sure if he was a relation to any of the players/ staff) for about 5 minutes to which he came in for some playful stick from the fans. Tony Parks replaced Robbo - who threw his gloves in to the crowd like usual - for the final 10 minutes and he too was starting off some chants with the Park Lane lot. Then with the last kick of the game, Louis netted his hat trick, again another great, rasping finish past Archer (who'd made a few decent saves throughout the half). As it finished, the players again shook hands with Ledley and a lot of the youngsters gave a little guard of honour to him too. Coyte interviewed him again and Ledley then applauded all sections of the crowd. A great night, the best night I've probably experienced at WHL, it had everything, goals, skill, laughter, legends and just a great atmosphere, fitting for a man loved by all those associated with Spurs. Thank you Ledley. NOTE: I haven't read over any of what I've written so I apologise in advance for what is no doubt a ton of spelling mistakes, when I type fast I tend to miss out a word here and there in a sentence too but hopefully most of what I've written is understandable.
Thanks for the writeup SoS, wish I could have been there and I'm sure I'm not alone. Can't wait for the highlights to go up on the OS, should be sometime today I reckon.
No worries, I emailed Spurs today asking if a DVD will be released, they replied with this: "Thank you for your email. I am afraid that the Ledley King Testimonial Committee did not film the match yesterday evening. I am sorry to disappoint you. There will be exclusive videos posted to Spurs TV." Huge shame as I'd have loved to have kept a memento of it all.
Actually, on that note if anyone didn't get a programme they're doing a re-run of the printing. You can order online by following the links from the page given below. http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/ledley-programme-reprint-130514/
Great read, reminded me of a few moments I'd forgotten about. The Holtby/Freund battle was brilliant, I think at one stage Freund glided past Lewis leading him to fallover embarrassed and laughing, although I think Holtby 'megged him at one point too. Oh and I just remembered Eriksen and Ade's keepy uppies followed by Eriksen running down the pitch with the ball held on the back of his neck Credit to Ade, I don't like his attitude a lot of the time but he shows a lot of respect where it's due and was a good part of all the fun. Oh and when they were interviewing the MPs before the penalties and asked a Spurs supporting one(not Lammy) if he had a message for the fans and he shouted "Yiddos", which perhaps was a bit risky for a politician to do Lammy's penalty was the worst thing I've seen in my life but bless him he'd bought shiny, orange boots especially for the ocassion. Surely they'll bring out a DVD of the game, it will definitely be worth a buy for all the brilliant moments, too many to remember. Edit: Just seen SoS' post. ****! No DVD
Completely forgot about the keepy uppies with Eriksen and Ade, that was quality. Yeah agree too, Ade does rile me up at times but he picks the right moments to show he's actually a top bloke when he wants to be. Haha I said the exact same to my Cousin about the MP shouting "Yiddos", very risky indeed. My Nan who's had two hip replacements could've struck that pen better than Lammy Yeah absolutely gutted about the no DVD, I would've thought Spurs would have produced a mass batch ready to go, Levy's missed a trick there!
I think I have to agree- I am still buzzing. Absolutely amazing. Brilliant that we had a full stadium. Considered West but had to go Park Lane.
I don't buy that we didn't record the match, Lammy probably took an injunction out to stop footage of his penalty ever being released <laugh<
Yeah believe me it was a tough choice but I thought I'd go for view over atmosphere this one time. It proved a decent choice in the end, I got some great snaps, had a great view and a decent part of the West Stand (for a change!) was singing along.
Highlights are up now. Shows we maybe let Saha go too early and Capoue has a cool finish! Nearly saw Freund score, would have been a treat. http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/king-of-the-lane/
I hate Mexican waves but the kids enjoy them and as it was Ledley's testimonial I joined in. I don't want to see any next season though
I SAID WE SHOULD'VE KEPT SAHA!!! LISTEN TO ME SPURS!!! Lol. A shame they haven't shown some of the other funny moments but seeing Holtby and Webb again just brings back a smile.
Hah it was you then joining in. Got to say I agree as to not liking them and I didn't join, although it was impressive.
