Spurs - Slavia and the Fans, A glory night awaits

Europe beckons
By Davep
September 28 2006

In about an hour or so I will be leaving home to do something I haven’t done for quite a while now. I will be making my way to White Hart Lane to see a European game.

In about an hour or so I will be leaving home to do something I haven’t done for quite a while now. I will be making my way to White Hart Lane to see a European game. Something I haven’t done since 28th October 1999 when Steffen Iversen scored a 34th minute penalty to give Spurs a narrow 1-0 lead to take to the Fritz-Walter stadion, Beltzenberg a week later.

Events that night were not to go in Spurs’ favour as we lost the game very late on. Incidentally, we also appealed about an infringement of UEFA rules by Kaiserslautern regarding the handing in of their team sheet that night, an offence for which UEFA saw fit to fine them £500 instead of the maximum sanction that was available (which would have seen them banned).

That was seven years ago now and a lot has happened at Tottenham since then. We have a far stronger squad (although you’d be hard pressed to guess that looking at the injury list for tonight) and the competition itself has changed with the introduction of a very strange group stage where you only play each of the opponents once. But that is the prize that awaits the men in white this evening. A guaranteed further four European games before being joined by the dropouts from the Champions League to contest a knockout tournament culminating in a single game Final to be played in Glasgow in May.

A crowd of 35,177 watched that last home tie at White Hart Lane and tonight will see a similar sized attendance hoping to see their Spurs emulate previous sides that have gone on to glory in this competition. We were the first team to win the UEFA cup after it replaced the old Fairs Cup and we were the first British side to win it twice when on that balmy evening in May 1984 we beat RSC Anderlecht in front of over 46,000 fans. Who can forget the chants of ‘There’s only one Danny Thomas’ as he missed the penalty that would have clinched it and then Tony Parks’ save that made him the hero of us all (for a little while anyway). The scenes of celebration in and around the ground and up and down Tottenham High Road that night remain etched in my mind forever. But I’m Greedy – I want more of that and it starts tonight.

Well actually it started two weeks ago when Prague was taken over by what Martin Jol described as a culture. A culture that is us Spurs supporters. A culture that is engrained so deep in me that I am often accused of putting Spurs before anything else. We came away from the Czech capital with a lead, albeit a slender one but it is a lead nevertheless and ensures that if we don’t concede this evening we go through. But like I said, I’m greedy, I don’t want to just ‘not concede’, I want us to attack and win. And win convincingly because tonight is the perfect chance to banish the ghosts of a nightmare start to the season and to show just what this side is capable of. This side just missed out on Champions League football at the end of last season and now it is time to show those that would knock us down just what Spurs are all about.

It is also time for us supporters to do our bit. Some home games do not have the atmosphere that they should. Its time for the fans to ensure that is not the case tonight. It’s time for one of those Glory nights and when the lads come out onto the pitch in the All White strip I want, no expect, every single fan in the ground to get behind the team and scare the hell out of Slavia. I expect that noise to be kept up for the duration of the game and I expect to return home later on this evening reminded of what a glorious club we support.

In a world of Uniteds and Citys there is only one Hotspur – Tottenham Hotspur.

COYS