The Fighting Cock by Martin Cloake
There are some great independent Spurs blogs and podcasts being produced at the moment and I always try to make my small contribution to raising their profile when I can. Lately I’ve been picking up on The Fighting Cock and the 1882 movement. I’ve followed a couple of the lads involved on Twitter and recognise some names from back in the day on the old TopSpurs message board, and there’s a real energy to what they are doing.
I’m going to sound as old as I feel when I’m listening to the podcast now but it’s really encouraging to hear what sounds like a new generation creating something and questioning the blandification of modern football. The Fighting Cock is above all passionate about Spurs, but there’s a recognition of the bigger picture that chimes with a growing feeling that’s coalescing around the Stand Against Modern Football initiative. Having come from a generation at Spurs that, despite our fanzine experience and efforts with various independent supporter initiatives, has not really made the impression we once thought we could, what’s most encouraging is the can-do spirit that pervades The Fighting Cock crew. They are a reminder of what football supporters are capable of, and of a spirit that is, in one of the great Steve Perryman’s favourite words, “proper”.
Yid. The Man Who Gave Us the Name
As I remember it, we were on the Spurs special returning from Elland Road, Leeds. The team had just put in a goliath performance to come away with a 2-1 victory but the train was in a sombre, almost wake like mood. The fact that one side of the train had had its glass kindly removed by a very large and very angry group of Leeds supporters, using anything they could physically throw in our direction could, possibly had had something to do with it. This sort of thing had become the norm and everyone was used to the attention […]
The Power of Love
Football can be a strange old thing. Sometimes it doesn’t do to dwell too much on the phenomenon of thousands of people paying small-ish fortunes to watch a few other people shove a ball around, but yesterday’s affair at White Hart Lane was one of the weirder days. A team that has made its best ever start to a Premier League campaign earned a narrow but merited win over modest though well-organised opposition that was hard to break down. Luck played its part with the decisive penalty award, but it resulted in a victory that left a team in obvious […]