Let's pretend we scored a goal
Friday, February 17, 2012 at 7:58PM Thanks to everyone that turned out at the Valley yesterday evening for the Charlton v Spurs FA Youth Cup game as part of the #tottenhamultras project. Disappointing we lost to a last minute goal, but the night was a fantastic celebration in supporting our club. Tottenham fans singing relentlessly for ninety minutes in a boisterous impromptu mess as opposed to the more colourful spectacle of the South Americans and more serious synchronised madness of our continental counterparts. We're never going to quite match that. Although we did have a man in an elephant mask.
Beer. Song. Love for Spurs. No constraints or pressure of expectation. It's that simple. From London Bridge to the Valley and back, its all been recorded so looking forward to sharing the short film when it's edited and available on online.
We had our drum taken off us along with various banners. Apparently you have to inform the club in advance that you're bringing a drum. I struggled to understand this even more so when the stewards told us that it's not permitted due to the home fans not being aware of the drums impending visit and that the noise might offend them. Going with the same logic they should have confiscated our voices at the turnstiles (I'm bringing the comedy). However, all in good banter, the stewards were great hosts and we just go on with it. We had cow bells and a baby drum in reserve. We are minimalistic ultras, size doesn't matter.
Special mention to @Teflon6 and @eperons for their road-trip (driving) from Belgium through to France to Charlton and the 8% bottled beer + Eden Hazard inside knowledge that would make the head spin off the ITK community. Tremendous effort made by both to travel into London for a youth match. Also meet a lot of people yesterday (Twitter folk, forum dwellers, WHL regulars), it's all very blurry looking back on it but honoured to finally shake the hands of @WindyCOYS and @SpursBlogger - both essential for your on-line THFC consumption. Only regret is not having more time to speak to the both of them along with a number of other Spurs folk I had the pleasure of hugging (including @jodmitchell our iphone app developer).
Great feedback from the players themselves via Twitter, all very appreciative of the noise being made and experience given, something that John McDermott (“I’ve got to say I thought the number of Spurs fans was amazing. It was like a little White Hart Lane. To be able to play in at atmosphere like this is a fantastic experience, but it’s just a tough pill to take at the moment”) cited in the official Spurs match report. Charlton even used our Ultras tag in their write-up when mentioning our support. Nice touch. Some quality chanting at the game (Stretch ! Stretch ! Stretch!) all in good humour.
So again, thank you to all that turned up for this. Going forward into next season we're hoping to organise more youth team/friendly away trips to complement the first teams support on the road and offer an escape from the more controlled environment at football matches where we are sometimes made to feel guilty for standing up and singing.
Altogether now..."This isn't our train, this isn't our traaaaaaaaain, let's not get on it, this isn't our train".
Love the shirt.
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Reader Comments (20)
Spooks, care to elaborate on the Hazzard info? Is this something to get prowpa excited about?
Love this. Good work everybody involved. Keep it up!
Re: Hazard, no, not really. Just confirmation that he player is interested and that Spurs is more than a viable option rather than just being used to attract the attention of others. What you've heard from player/father so far isn't BS.
The onus might be on us to really push the deal through.
Just proves to my warped mind that I really think we could be on the very cusp of something really special.
great to meet you last night by the way, you fucking legend! I claim a written warning at work for constantly reading dml! Fuck em though, I can get another job, but you can't get another club!
Would love it if more stuff like this could be done for friendlies and Spurs XI games. We play the likes of Barnet most seasons don't we? I', sure we could round up 200+ for something like this again.
Well done to all that attended last night, sounds like a quality night. I'm up for the next one.
who was the large bloke with the huge 'Alan from the Hangover' beard, blowing on the whistle?
Gutted it missed it. Was workin in Stevenage too, so wasn't that far away but unfortunately had to bank some overtime. Hey ho. I'm defo gonna make the next one. Reckon we should all wear name tags with our t'interweb pseudonyms next time!
How about an Ultra's tour for next year's NextGen, and an Ultra's 'vets' for the next Masters Tournament?
Sounds like you're talking about Eperons (posts on Fighting Cock forum) travelled in from France.
Great night.
Nice to meet you Spooky.
My voice hasn't croaked this much since arse and Chelsea wins in the same week.
I expect King, Modric, Bale, Ade will all be rested today and possibly Benny and Scotty too. Should have a strong bench for a change though.
The big Q imo is whether we risk Saha alongside Defoe today. He looks fit enough already so is not desperate for games plus and could get banged up today against Stevenage.
Don't want him crocked just when the Ade/Saha pairing is looking inferno hot. I would play five in the middle myself with Defoe alone up top.
We will win today unless we go to sleep but might have to battle for it.
I read that Southgate thinks this game is a "banana skin" for us.
I think there might be several banana skins..the gorillas - that's us - are hungry.
6 effing zip!! COYS!!
Had a great time at the Ultras ,was well worth the long round trip from Belgium and got to meet the Podcast crew , the spookster himself and some of the regular posters on here (Frontwheel being one of them)
Pleasure to meet you buddy. Still staggered with the effort you made to journey in. Amazing stuff. What being a supporter is all about.
Wow. Well done Stevenage. That was ... very strange. Not many players looked like themselves. Wilson from the boro was very good. Made Bale look like a fool.
"Wilson from the boro was very good."
@nycyid.... I'm from the boro' too... You know something I don't? Or 'ave I got me "boro's" crossed?
I'm talking about this Wilson from this boro
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrie_Wilson
Bumpy midden of a pitch and i think they narrowed it a bit for the occasion that was in it. Spurs looked like the 2008 teams that Mr Ramos put out. Was glad to hear the final whistle.
Loved this. Great to meet you - THE legend of the blogging sphere.