Game Forty One - Tottenham Hotspur v Wigan (FA Cup 3rd round)

2nd January 2009

A new year and what better way to start it off with a new ground as we take one step closer to acheiving the 92 league grounds. FA Cup third round is a great time to be a football fan as games come thick and fast and there's that amazing sense of optimism as some of the smaller teams have the chance to knock the bigger boys off their high horses.

Back at work, and back onto the football trail as I left the office slightly early after working through lunch to ensure that I was on time for the train to St Pancras in plenty of time. This was probably the worst planned random away day I've ever had as all I had to guide me to White Hart Lane was a sheet of paper Helen had printed for me that I hadn't even read yet! I was just gonna go with the flow and see what happened - not clever if you recall our pre-season trip to Crystal Palace earlier in the year where we failed miserably in trying to find the ground as part of a random day of adventures.

The train journey was very standard though and gave me the chance to catch up on a bit of sleep and as I arrived at St Pancras, I just hopped onto the tube to Seven Sisters and took it from there. The instructions mentioned something about walking from this point but that didn't appeal and instead just heard a man shouting about train to White Hart Lane left in three minutes from platform two so decided to take the chance and rushed to the platform and dived onto a train to Enfield without a clue where I would end up. 5 minutes later, a mass exodus of people suggested it would be wise to leave the train here.
Luckily enough, signs started appearing to point me in the right direction and I was at the ground within minutes. Massive walk? No thanks!! Random trains are the way forward!!

The area around the ground is exactly how football should be. Burger vans everywhere, shops lining the streets with queues outside, and random market stalls selling souvenirs of the team. There was a real buzz around the place and everyone seemed to be a real local football fan rather than the collection of tourists from around the globe who plagued the Emirates and Anfield on our trips. The highlight of this area being the old petrol station where people had gathered. Full of burger vans, and a spurs merchandise shop built into the place.

With Helen and her dad running late, I wandered around the ground for a bit in the sub-zero temperatures and then made my way up to the North stand upper tier and found my seat for the game.

The ground itself appears bigger than I imagined as the relatively low capacity of the place leaves yourself imaginging a smaller venue.... maybe its the massive screens at the ends of the ground that gives the illusion of being bigger of the two tiers of bowl as opposed to the one at the walkers.

It's quite a nice ground though and a pleasant atmosphere around full of optimism of a good cup run again. Suprisingly the home end proved to be close to sell out ... unlike the travelling fans who must have sold no more than 200 tickets for the match.

Helen finally made an appearance with about 10 minutes till kick off and the teams emerged from the tunnel to get the FA Cup third round underway for 2009. The home fans were creating quite a bit of noise, especially when compared to some of the other "bigger" teams I've seen in the course of the season.

Wigan started the game quite strongly, passing the ball around quite nicely and Henri Camara headed a free kick inches wide of the post.

Spurs created a few decent chances, with Bent forcing a decent save from the visiting keeper, and Modric hitting well wide from the edge of the area when he should have at the very least made the keeper work. Kilbane nearly put into his own net before Bent hobbled off injured and Spurs appeared to run out of ideas with him off the pitch.

Wigan started to come back into the game more and they came close to scoring with a free kick that Gomes got down well to stop.

At half time I knew this game was heading only one way... to a nil nil draw like in my previous three random games. Surley it couldn't happen again could it? Helen's dad came over to join us during the break and ended up staying with us for the remainder of the game. As the only Spurs fan amongst the three of us, he was used to seeing the lack of goals on display!

On 52 minutes, the moment I'd waited for for nearly four random games came. Frazier Campbell latched onto a through ball and tried to round Kingson in the Wigan goal but was caught and went down leaving the refereee with only one option... penalty!

Up stepped Pavlyuchenko and bured it low and hard to the keepers right.

And celebrated in front of the North stand as the sounds of "Spurs are on their way to Wembley" and "Que Sera Sera" rang out amongst the home fans.

Wigan responded positively forcing a few corners which resulted in little reward for the brave souls who had made the journey south on the cold friday night. Spurs always looked dangerous on the counter attack and it was from one of these that the second goal of the game came. As they charged forward, O'Hara fired a quality effort against the post from 30 yards and the rebound fell to Modric who headed it in having tripped over seconds before. A real stroke of luck as had he not tripped, he never would have been in the position to score the goal.... but that's what you need sometimes and they had the cushion they needed.

Hossam Ghaly was then due to be brought on for Spurs to see out the game but after an incident involving throwing his shirt to the ground in 2007, the Spurs fans wern't happy to see him back and voiced their displeasure as he stepped up to come on.... forcing Harry Redknapp to change his decision and bring on Aaron Lennon instead. Controversial to say the least.

With a couple of minutes remaining, Wigan pulled one back to set up an exciting finish to the match. A goal mouth scramble ended with Camara swinging a boot and prodding it past the helpless Gomes to give the visitors hope of snatching a replay.

They pressed on and on deep into injury time but the final say was down to that man with the hardest name to spell in football... Roman Pavlyuchenko. He smashed an effort home from thirty yards in the 4th minute of stoppage time to send all the Spurs fans home in a cheerful mood.

As the final whistle blew, we had to fight our way out the ground and back to White Hart Lane train station where we were to catch a train back to where Helen's dad had parked the car and he drove us all back to Birmingham where I was to spend the night before heading to the Leicester game in the morning. As is the tradition with any away travelling, I dozed off before too long! Wouldnt have been right if I hadn't! Was a good night out though and the curse of no goals was finally broken!

Although this year is only two days old, it's already given me plenty to think about. Some moments elevate you more than football ever can. As we delve deeped into our passions for the game, it can be hard to deviate between what is real and what is just essentially a hobby and for that reason, I think at the end of the season, I'll be looking to cut down on the adventures a bit. I've done 41 games so far this season and will continue in cramming games in for the rest of the season as I feel I owe that to myself after having come so far but as of May.... It's time to grow up a bit. I'll still have my season ticket at Leicester and do my fair share of away games but I can't see myself reaching the dizzy heights of 100% again in a hurry (assuming I acheive it this season.) We'll see though - circumastances may well change... time will tell.