Saturday: Part 1

Been looking forward to this Saturday for a while: a combination of football & theatre in London. Firstly a 12:45 kick off at White Hart Lane to see my beloved Spurs play Manchester City. We have a good record against City, apart from that dreaded FA Cup tie a couple of years ago where we went 3-0 up & lost 4-3 against 10 men. Not a game to forget in a hurry! :-( Because we had to get to the West End later, we had to get the train from the offset (we usually drive to Tottenham which only takes about an hour) but the train & tubes took 2 & a half hrs, followed by a mile's walk to the stadium. Thankfully the sun was shining & there were no wintery blizzards like in Sunderland!

The games against City haven't always been very pretty but on this occasion it was quite entertaining. The atmosphere in the stadium was very lively today (sometimes it lacks a little) & where we were sitting, there was good rapport with the other fans.

Our boys played really well in the first half. Other than Paul Stalteri scoring the opening goal a minute before half time (always a good time to score), the highlight of the half was undoubtedly when the opposition's goalie David James made a complete hash-up of dribbling around an oncoming attacker & gave the ball to us with the goal gaping wide open; unfortunately Mido wasted the chance by not spotting Keano waiting in the middle of the box! Our fans proceeded to chant 'England's Number 4, England England's Number 4'!! Of course our very own Paul Robinson is England's number 1 goalkeeper, with David James in 2nd and this chanting was very amusing!! The second half got off to a flyer with another goal scored in the 49th minute by Michael Carrick. Beautifully taken down on the chest on the right-hand side of the box & smashed into the back of the net. Woohoo! Except for this one piece of brilliance, Carrick had a lack-lustre game, looking far too casual in my opinion. With the World Cup selection coming up, he should be showing what he is truly capable of. Spurs slipped up a few minutes later, letting in a soft goal from close range. Typical! The rest of the game was a bit rough for us & we might have easily conceded an equaliser; thankfully we hung on for the 3 points. Phew! Now all our hopes are pinned onto Man Utd (Manure) beating the Gooners (Arsenal) tomorrow so they don't close the gap of 5 points Spurs have on them at the moment. I detest both teams, but tomorrow I will be routing for Manure!