Feeling the Love for the Lane

The die has been cast, the season has arrived at a climactic showdown and what better place to have it settled than at White Hart Lane? The grand old stadium has played host to some of the greats of English football, and still stands as a beacon to days gone by. This season frequenting Spurs its significance to me has been burned into my soul, I love the Lane.

Stood at Mill Hill Broadway station on a gloriously sunny afternoon, I was approached by an old couple.

“Excuse me, are you going to Tottenham?”

“Yes.”

“We haven’t been in years, our son gave us some tickets, but we are unsure of what’s the best way to get there?”

“Come with me, let’s go together.”

As we sped on the First Capital Connect, towards St Pancras, then filed on to the Victoria Line to Seven Sisters, I got to know my travelling companions, or should I say, they got to know me. I waxed lyrical about the beauty of White Hart Lane, the vision that is Gareth Bale at full speed and what the song Oh When the Spurs means to me.

Like a 14 year old boy who has just been smiled at by his first crush, I tried my best to gather my thoughts and portray to the old couple just what it means to be able to visit White Hart Lane. When we stepped off the 279 outside the ground, I invited my new friends into the Bell & Hare, but instead they opted to go and find their seats, my parting words were far from profound:

“Check out the Fighting Cock and enjoy the experience!”

As Bale fired in a last minute winner and the Lane erupted, I cast my thoughts over to Block 15, I am glad they saw a Spurs win.

[linequote]To be a Spurs fan you don’t need to visit the ground, you just need to hold the team and that wonderful stadium close to your heart.[/linequote]

Of course my life following Spurs hasn’t always been simple, like many Spurs fans, there were times when through financial, work or personal reasons I have been unable to attend. Many people will tell you that only true fans go to every game, but that’s naive. The world is a big place and Spurs fans are scattered across it. It’s just not possible that everyone can go week in week out, or even once in a while.

To be a Spurs fan you don’t need to visit the ground, you just need to hold the team and that wonderful stadium close to your heart.

White Hart Lane may be in desperate need of a face lift and a bar or two that can serve you a beer within 15 minutes, but nevertheless it’s ours. The feeling of walking up the stairs and then emerging to see the pitch open up before you still catches me in the pit of my stomach. It’s like finding an old photo of you and a loved one who has passed on, its like remembering that time you won your first trophy as a kid, it sticks and it still means something, regardless of how much time has passed.

[linequote]White Hart Lane may be in desperate need of a face lift and a bar or two that can serve you a beer within 15 minutes, but nevertheless it’s ours.[/linequote]

This season going to nearly every home game, that feeling that first hit me in 1994 hasn’t diluted. During the 2012/13 I have learnt that exposure to Tottenham only serves to increase the addiction.

There have been moments when I pondered the meaning of life as we were one-nil down to QPR, or being ripped apart by Chelsea, but my love for the ground has been unwavering.

At the start of the season and even at certain points in the New Year there have been moments when the fans around me have bickered like a divorcing couple, but still the majority have remained loyal, and that little stadium has remained true to us.

Of course this isn’t the dark days of the late 90’s where all it took to be a legend was slipping into a shirt made by Pony. Today we have been blessed with decent players, one of whom is verging on world class. Yet even thinking back to those days in the 90’s, White Hart Lane was still was able to get a sparkle out of Oyvind Leonhardsen and Chris Perry, it’s a magical place under those floodlights.

[linequote]White Hart Lane was still was able to get a sparkle out of Oyvind Leonhardsen and Chris Perry, it’s a magical place under those floodlights.[/linequote]

Life, marriage and kids have affected my friends in their own way, which means I have spent most of the season going to the Lane alone. Being a lowly Bronze Member I have basically sat where I could, but as the season wore on I found myself more often than not drawn to the Park Lane lower.

In and around Block 32, sat somewhere between row 9 and 16, it was there I found my spiritual vantage point. I have seen familiar faces and heard the all too familiar cries for him to “effing do this or that”, but I have remained unaffected. Its part of the make up of watching football live, unlike Twitter, you can’t block or unfollow the person next to you.

For Tottenham to progress to the next level, we are going to have to move from White Hart Lane. Its pure economics, romanticism doesn’t pay the wages and it won’t lure the 25+ goals a season striker to us. What it does unite though is the fans and it attracts to the stadium Spurs fans who to man, woman or child I am proud of.

When West Ham threw abuse at us, when Basel tried to take the mick and United thought they were owed three points by God, we stood up to them. When we blew Man City and Arsenal apart in a matter of minutes, or snatched an equaliser against United or Everton, it erupted to a glorious cacophony.

[linequote]What it does unite though is the fans and it attracts to the stadium Spurs fans who to man, woman or child I am proud of.[/linequote]

Yes modern football has damaged us and the Bundesliga may have standing, beer in view of the pitch and chairmen working in harmony with the fans, but love is blind. White Hart Lane is one of my favourite places on the planet.

Regardless of what happens in the next week, I am proud to have visited the Lane, I am proud to support Spurs and I am proud of all of us.

Love the Lane, Love the Shirt and Come On You Spurs.