Tanner Long dives head first into the crowd debate. Having sat in the Paxton and Park Lane this season he shares his views on what he has seen so far.
Not the White Hart Lane I was looking for
On the fifth of January 2014 an NFL playoff game was being played between the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers. Despite negative 20 degree Fahrenheit (roughly negative 30 C) almost 80 thousand fans filled Lambeau Field in the town of Green Bay, Wisconsin. Packers fans screamed their hearts out, ripped their shirts off, and drank their completely frozen beer despite the sub-zero temperatures.
Even when losing at half and when facing an imminent game winning field goal by 49ers kicker Phil Dawson, Green Bay fans never gave up hope and never stopped cheering on their team even when it never looked like they would be on the right end of the result at the end of the game.
The final score does not really do this game justice. Though they only lost by three, Green Bay made so many mistakes. These mistakes were so poor that they made me want to cry tears that would have frozen on my face before they reached my cheek bones. In spite of these mistakes Packer fans did not boo, they did all they could to help their team and cheer like they never had before, even when Phil Dawson’s game winner ended Green Bay’s season.
After the field goal went through we stood up and walked out, some clapped for the season the players gave us, some cried, everyone was sad, but no one absolutely no one berated the team that they love.
[linequote]In spite of these mistakes Packer fans did not boo, they did all they could to help their team and cheer like they never had before[/linequote]
Fast forward eight months. I am now sitting at White Hart Lane for my first ever Spurs game, something that had occupied the top spot on my bucket list for every day of my recent memory. I had spent so many years of my life waking up at 6:45 in America to watch this club play I finally got to experience the club and stadium I worshipped.
Even though we were only playing AEL Limmasol in a Europa League qualifier, I had looked forward to this game more than any other sporting event in the 21 years of my life. There really was not much atmosphere at the game, except from the Cypriot fans (even though their team was losing by three goals), but I still had goose bumps the entire time I was there.
The five seats to either my left or right were all empty and the game was not that exciting, but it was still one of the happiest moments of my life. I left on a major high, not being able to wait for my first Premier League match and experiencing the European football atmosphere that I had fantasized about.
After sitting through the home games against Liverpool, West Brom, and Southampton in the Paxton Road end, I made a decision to never sit on that end again. The atmosphere was not only boring, but depressing. I seriously could not believe it. I sat there every game wishing I could walk over and join the Park Lane end where they were standing and singing. Trust me, I get it, if you want to sit and enjoy the beautiful game, sit there and enjoy it, but come on, just because you are sitting does not mean you cannot show your support.
In the Paxton end I noticed that the only “acceptable” time to make any sort of noise that the players on the pitch could actually hear was when either Spurs did something good or when they did something poor. If someone started singing when the ball was in the middle of the pitch, people would turn around to see who was making all the noise.
For Liverpool and West Brom, all I heard around me was about how crap the players we have are and how we are just generally not a good team. During the Southampton match, a man behind me was severely heckling Fraser Forster. Sure he was kind of annoying, but I absolutely loved it.
[fullquote]I get it, if you want to sit and enjoy the beautiful game, sit there and enjoy it, but come on, just because you are sitting does not mean you cannot show your support[/fullquote]
Despite the slight annoyance, the guy was quite funny and got Fraser’s attention. Forster did not have a good game at all, so whoever who you were sir, more power to you. Thank you for actually showing some sort of emotion and trying to help your club in the Paxton end, even when nothing good or bad was happening.
Regardless of my opinion of this heckling, the majority of the people around me were mugging him off for making too much noise. I was happy to see that he really did not care and continued on. Funnily enough, after Christian Eriksen’s goal put us up, those same people started joining in with the heckling of Forster. That never would have happened had that goal not happened.
Why does it take something good to get some emotion out of the fans?
If you love the club, support the club when in the lead, behind, or tied. Do not just sit on your hands watching the ball bounce back and forth. Despite the 1-0 victory against a very solid Southampton team, I left that match on a massive low. I still loved Tottenham Hotspur the same way, but my faith in the fans of the club was dwindling. I did though have a lot of confidence that moving away from Paxton Road would at the very least mend that loss of faith.
So, now with only a fourth of the stadium available to me to buy tickets (I find the east and west ends overpriced, which is a whole different issue), I started buying up all the Park Lane tickets I could get my hands on. Minus the 1882 movement games, which I thoroughly enjoyed, changing sections did not have the effect on me that I had hoped.
The Besiktas match was pretty enjoyable, until they scored. Yeah sure it was late in the game and the odds of Spurs retaking the lead were slim, but they still had a chance. Instead of cheering on the lads to grab the late winner, a large majority of fans were more concerned with taking pictures of the flare that was ignited in the visitors section.
My experience during league games in the Park Lane end can only be described as disheartening. It is the same progression every game, loud boisterous singing at the beginning of the match, something goes poorly, the noise slowly, but surely dies away, as it dies the performance dips, the stadium goes silent, and finally the players get booed off the pitch with their heads down wondering when the next away day is. Ups and downs happen in every sporting event in the world and what makes a team great is when they respond positively to those downs.
To make this club great like we all want, because we really love the club, we have to change our mind set and show that love no matter how close we are to receiving a knockout blow. On match days it does not matter what is happening with the back room staff, which players are on good form and which are not, or how the manager is working out.
All that matters are the players on the pitch who want to win just as bad as the fans do. For them to win we have to stand behind our players and show our belief in them. If the fans are not behind the players the whole match (especially when things are going very poorly) they will not perform as well as they can and probably not win. Negativity is a poison that does no good for anyone.
[linequote]It is the same progression every game, loud boisterous singing at the beginning of the match, something goes poorly, the noise slowly, but surely dies away[/linequote]
As a member with Spurs, I have many friends asking me to get them tickets and right now I am very reluctant to do so. I would rather them watch on television and hope that they fall in love with the club like I did. I feel as though going to White Hart Lane right now would deter many from loving Spurs as the rest of the fan base already does.
I know this has been very negative, but do not get me wrong, I still have faith in this club and fan base. We can still achieve glory in a way that would make Bill Nic proud and I believe we will eventually get back to that. A major step toward that though, is changing our mind set on match days.
Forget about ENIC, forget about Levy, and forget about our position in the league table during a match. Just show the players on the pitch that you love that badge on their chest and that you believe that they can succeed wearing that badge.
All views and opinions expressed in this article are the views and opinions of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of The Fighting Cock. We offer a platform for fans to commit their views to text and voice their thoughts. Football is a passionate game and as long as the views stay within the parameters of what is acceptable, we encourage people to write, get involved and share their thoughts on the mighty Tottenham Hotspur.
7 Comments
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13/11/2014 @ 1:08 pm
Your sentiments are obviously genuine but you miss the point on one significant point. Unfortunately not all the players want to win as much as the Fans and if you can’t see that then I am afraid you need to wake up. BTW East and west ends are parts of London not White Hart Lane
13/11/2014 @ 1:11 pm
Well written and well said sir. I despise the boo boys. When did boing ever make the player think “you know what I’m going to try even harder”
13/11/2014 @ 1:17 pm
Very good post mate and agree totally with what you re saying. The atmosphere at home games now is dreadful and the away fans constantly take the mickey, I don’t know what has happened over the last few years, I go I park lane lower and even thats poor support for much of the game, the only consolation is other home support is the same these days, recent complaints by arsenal, man city and Chelsea, hopefully they will build a hardcore supports section at the new stadium – if youre not passionate and vocal you cant get in !!
13/11/2014 @ 2:08 pm
The fans feel isolated from the board and players ,Daniel Levy should give some hope to fans,talk to us Daniel, where are the fans that were in the south east corner a few seasons ago? Stop visiting fans from standing during the game ,allow us to stand and use the y word without fear of being turfed out of the stadium.
13/11/2014 @ 3:32 pm
You are right, of course. We are a strange lot, we Spurs fans. Nothing would give me greater joy than to join in with the old ‘slow’ rendition of our anthem ‘Glory, Glory Hallelujah’ on any White Hart Lane Saturday, Sunday or midweek match. I’ve experienced it many times, especially in the 1960s as a kid, but also in the early and then very late 1970s, through the 1980s and early 1990s (even tho’ the anthem occasionally speeded up a bit, unfortunately ..as it does need to be sung slow, loud and hauntingly for the best effect, to pervade the Lane and really unnerve the opposition and their fans, as well as inspire, even more, our players on the pitch). At its best it beat the strains of Liverpool’s old glory nights with ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. The shivers it has brought to my spine, the tears to my eyes ..never has the love of our club been more manifest than on those occasions, the players like gods (our gods), the club and its fans as one. The strains of the anthem stretching towards Edmonton in the north and Seven Sisters in the south. Magical!
And so to these more cynical times.
I agree with the fan above who says players at all times should try their utmost. If not, then booing is fully justified in those instances, especially as the average fan today spends fortunes more than in the old days to watch these ridiculously paid people.
We also appear, at present, to have a very disjointed squad, an unhappy squad that has yet to find bonding with each other and with the manager. Contrast this with 3 or 4 seasons back. We have wasted some good squads in recent years, and we are now back to mid table mediocrity. The average Spurs fan knows that we’ve wasted the improvements from the past 10 years, that the new stadium promise is still a long way off, and that we’re back at square one because of selling off our best players (despite heavy expenditure on replacements).
But we do seem to have a mindset (the fans, that is) which is different from most clubs. We seem to take joy in being proved right over players falling short, owners getting it wrong, or managers not being up to it (all this despite our management teams and recently bought players having been generally successful at other clubs ..er, which is why we brought them to Tottenham). We have a mindset that success is our ‘right’ (a bit like the Geordies), and that misery, rather than happiness, makes good bed fellows. It’s like being spoilt ..but we haven’t been spoilt for years, so it’s all a bit odd. So yes, there is a sickness with the fans at the moment ..but I do believe that this is borne out of a sickness which is pervading the whole of our club. It might be that drastic changes need to happen before we, the fans, can come out of our cynicism and sneering and get back to really supporting and cheering the club we love. I am sure we would rather watch and fully support a group of youngsters, all unified in their approach and tactics, and with real potential and expectations for the future, battle their socks off for the Spurs first team right now, giving 100% of their hearts and souls, and yet finishing only, say, 12th this season …than watch this current mob of disjointed players for the rest of the season who might finish 7th or 8th. It’s why we liked Holtby ..even tho his skill and awareness has never matched his energy and enthusiasm.
We just want to see the club visibly pull together. We don’t mind falling short, as long as we can see the shape of good things to come. We want to see effort and tactics applied properly. We want the players, the management and the owners to feel the pain and desire that we have. And remember, WE are the customers (as glib as that sounds) while THEY are the ones making money from us …so get it right, or at least try to, and our mindset WILL change, with the Lane becoming a cheering fortress once again!
13/11/2014 @ 9:05 pm
One thing sums up our clubs attitude and it was the banning of the drum.
I can remember in the jol era when the ground went silent (not often) the thud “boom boom boom” used to go on relentlessly to the crowd voiceing “yids yids yids”. So when we were not cheering and shouting we still had the menacing “yids yids yids” which in my mind un-nerved opposition players and fans.
It was probably complaints from the plastics that had this stopped.
I am 50 and sit in the east stand (shelf) I sing as I always have done, I have told numerous blokes to fuck off when they have given me a look because I am being vocal and standing.
I went to Wembley when we played Chelsea, I stood up faced up the terrace to “our” fans and my words were “come on you wankers get behind them” I m afraid it is down to the club and todays supporters.
This will be my last year of going to the lane ive had enough at the age of 50 and feel sorry that many of todays fans will not experience game like the 51,000 at the lane against Bolton….in the second division that was REAL support !
14/11/2014 @ 1:56 pm
I remember that Bolton match – quality! As was Southampton away that season.
I wonder whether a drop down to the championship for a few seasons would actually sort us out as a club.