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”.

Getting High – A Blessing and a Curse
Like most Spurs fans I spend my time obsessing about how Spurs seem to control so many games without truly threatening their opponents. After witnessing a textbook Spurs performance against Aston Villa at the weekend- I’ve come up with is a hypothesis that AVB’s high line is both a blessing and a curse. At the heart of it, the high line, is a hard-pressing strategy all about achieving control through the compression of space. We fence the opponents in to their half, force them to turn over the ball in that area, preventing ourselves from being overexposed in midfield, which […]