Haven't we sold out a pretty large allocation, too? Something like 5,500? Doesn't sound great, does it?
We're taking up 5,500 which is a cracking turn out! I'm hoping that both the Met & South Yorkshire police now know what happened at the Lane and will be out in force and on top of the idiots who want to cause trouble.
Time wasting is part of the game the lesser teams always do it, I don't like it but happens, the point I was trying to make was the fact we were doing it when we should've been pushing for a second. 2-0 would've made a massive difference 1-0 has given them a massive boost.
Time-wasters' faith in officials' blindness to what they're up to and/or inability to perform basic mathematics is touching.
Seeing as the Sheffield fans have been brought up by a few on here, thought I'd share about what happened with me that night. Before the game as they were getting marched in by police they tried jumping through the police lines to try and intimidate us, which only provoked some of Spurs to do the same, so it already gave a feel for what was to happen after the game. As we left the stadium, there were a bunch of them right outside the megastore after the game - about 20 I'd say - I was with my mate and Cousin, while my Mum and Auntie were also at the game in a different block in Park Lane. As we turned by the megastore, one of the Sheffield fans who had a Burberry scarf wrapped round his face covering his nose and mouth, shoulder barged my Cousin and then me, calling us "cockney ****s", I was in a bad mood all day due to a ****ty day at work so probably wasn't the best thing he (then I) could've done, I pushed him back and warned him if he came closer I'd smack him one, then his "friend" - a 50-60 year old farmer looking twat - told me to come closer as he clenched his fist, I called him a Grandad and told him to **** off and that he should come to me, then warned him I'd give him a hernia if he tried anything (don't ask why I said that, was the first thing that came to mind ) and that regardless of their numbers they didn't intimidate us - my mate at the same time was having words with another one of them, my Cousin being the smart one took a back seat. Unbeknownst to me, my Mum and Auntie must have been closely behind us when walking out of the stadium and therefore saw what was happening so they came over and told me and my mate to calm down and just walk away (which we were about too) but then one knobhead wearing an Ellesse bucket hat decided called my Mum a slag and to **** off, so I lost it and just went for him and grabbed his neck while getting ready to hit him but the police were on us like a rash by then so no punches were thrown but it did seem as though he shat himself a bit, so that was a little satisfying. The police officer warned me I'd be arrested if I didn't walk away down the high road so I duly obliged, I never went (never do) looking for a fight but knobheads like them lot deserve a slap and shouldn't be allowed to think they're untouchable just because they're in a big group. Most of them all dressed like the old school casuals, I know all about the casual/ hooligan side of things, my Uncle was apart of it in the 70s/80s and I have mates in firms these days, I know for a fact that true firms will never attack members of the public who aren't part of an opposing firm, those idiots by the megastore were just a bunch of wannabes trying to look hard and intimidate people in small numbers. It wouldn't surprise me if they deliberately waited by the megastore, where a lot of police were nearby, knowing if anything did kick off they'd have the police there to stop it. Bunch of scummy ****ers, insulting a woman (especially it being my Mum) is in my opinion pathetic and cowardly. After I got home (only live a 15 minute walk from the Lane), I got a text about 20 minutes later saying that a bunch of Sheffield fans - roughly 15-20 (not a clue if the same ones we encountered) - tried jumping around 7 or 8 Spurs fans at a bus stop but the Spurs boys held their ground. There were sirens going off for about an hour after kick off so it sounds like more trouble happened. I hope their journey home was **** and they broke down in the freezing cold at night
Based on my recent encounter with them, poor you! I've heard in the past about some of the Yorkshire team's fans, I've encountered some Leeds fans in the past too but this lot were just down right grubby little bastards who clearly have no lines to cross when it comes to aiming abuse at women and only picking fights with people in far smaller numbers than them.
They sound like boy scouts compared to the "bovver-boot-boys of the late 60's/70's.I think the Chelsea lot were the worst followed by Leeds,United and Liverpool. Thought the day of the loonie had past.Obviously not! I can remember being in a line at Liverpool station waiting for the train back to London with the Pool loonies trying to get at us,but the law kept them at bay.Ken Wolstenholme was in front of me too.Wonder what he thought.....?
If they were playing midweek it was never a good idea to wait at a bus stop, because in their beered-up brains that meant you were obviously looking for some bother rather than, say, waiting for the 81 bus.
Cultural differences...there just isn't any group violence associated with sports in the US. Don't get me wrong. There's the very, very occasional fight in the stands between two people. There are plenty of bar fights. There are adult and teenage non-sports related gangs that shoot each other (though that's died down in the past decade or two). There are gangs of kids in high school from different neighborhoods who sometimes bubble up into a gang fight. But it was strange to read SOS's story because I've had experiences much like that, but none since I was very young. I think it's guns, actually. The one thing worse than everybody having a gun is half the people having them, which is what you have in the US. There are fights, but there's no fighting culture, because people do get shot for winning fights fairly regularly.
Football is just the conduit for these morons. Many of them couldn't give a flying toss about the game, they just want to brawl. There was never any trouble at football games when I was a kid. Supporters were not separated. It all started in the mid-late '60's and Millwall were the instigators (surprise, surprise! ) Before that it was mods & rockers, etc. nowadays football is the chosen venue for the violence.
Sheffield is a 70s/80s backwater. Most of the bid Northern cities have benefited for regeneration. For example, Manchester has umpteen universities now, the Sports City complex, even cultural quarters and a gay village. Sheffield is still the grim North the media speak of when they talk about a North/South divide. Once upon a time it was a thriving city with most people, it seemed, employed by British Steel or associated industries. Since the 80s, it's been a very poor area (as depicted in the film "The Full Monty"). It's as if time has stood still. It's no wonder their football fans are still in a 70s/80s timewarp too.
Having lived there for three years, I can categorically deny this assertion. There's two universities (I know, I went to one of them - the one that didn't become a national laughing stock for banning Eminem from union nights), a cultural industries quarter, it's the National City of Sport (whatever the hell that means...), had a tram system long before any of Nottingham, Edinburgh, Birmingham or Croydon did, and was home to a corporate superclub in Gatecrasher...before it caught fire then fell over. Doncaster, on the other hand, that's a real ****hole.
I disagree, they have to score against us twice to knock us out(unless it goes to penalties) and keep a cleansheet. That's the important thing. Give them something to defend and they'll do just that, which is a problem for us. Of course scoring a second would've been great but there's more to lose than gain at that point. Whether we'd won by 1 or 2 goals I think we'd have to take our first 11 for the away trip so I'm not too fussed.
Any other team that would be the case, but Spurs being Spurs it isn't - as having a healthy lead after the first leg is a death wish, for example... vs Burnley in the League Cup, 2009: won 4-1 at home, then needed extra time in the second leg when we were 3-0 down at the final whistle vs Inter in the Europa League, 2013: won 3-0 at home, then needed extra time in the second leg when we were 3-0 down at the final whistle When it comes to Spurs, it's much better for the team to have a reason to win a second leg than to think they can sit back, because that's something we seem incapable of doing.
I'll second that. If we go up there and try to just hang on to our slender lead, were finished!.... For sure they'll come at us like a runaway train in the first 10-15 mins. If we can hold on, whack them on the break and get a second goal, that should shut the crowd up and quieten things down a bit.
