It has been possible to watch football at White Hart Lane this season despite delays to Tottenham Hotspur’s return to London N17. PHILIP BARKER reports.
Haringey Borough have already delighted their fans with an unprecedented run to the first round proper of the FA Cup. They will meet AFC Wimbledon at their Coles Park ground on the weekend of November 10.
They will also enjoy pointing out that their ground is actually on White Hart Lane whereas the Spurs stadium is, in fact, on the Tottenham High Road.
Although they had come close in the recent past, Haringey had never before reached the competition proper. The best their illustrious forbears Tufnell Park ever achieved was a sixth qualifying round loss to Grimsby 97 years ago, and that was before the competition was reorganised into its present format.
On Saturday, Poole Town were the visitors, possibly the only football town in the country where the speedway team is better known.
They told me that when their club first reached the competition proper they played against Everton and the mighty Dixie Dean. It is all there in the record books. Not that anyone of them remembered it, it was 1927.
The press box at the back of the stand was what estate agents might describe as bijou. I found fellow SJA Committee member Jon Batham crammed in alongside the stadium announcer and reporters from the Hampstead and Highgate Express (Broadway edition) and the Bournemouth Echo.
Thanks @raystubbs @TonyIncenzo 🏆⚽️👍🏾👏🏾 https://t.co/v82JhGWKtb
— Haringey Borough FC (@HaringeyBoroFC) October 22, 2018
They were hard pressed to find much of note to write about in the first half and it wasn’t long before Haringey’s small band of fans started a ‘Jungle’ chant. This was in reference to the latest venture, or should that be adventure, of Poole’s most famous resident Harry Redknapp.
He is, apparently, joining the cast of I’m a celebrity, get me out of here.
Rather wonderfully, the Haringey choir also broke into the chimney sweep’s song from Mary Poppins whenever Chinedu McKenzie touched the ball.
Everyone seemed very pleased when Haringey came from behind to win 2-1 and the entire squad rushed out to celebrate. Defender Mark Kirby even celebrated by downing a pint on the field.
As for a neutral’s account details of the match, best read Jon Batham’s account in the Non League Paper.
Already the BBC are calling this one of the ties of the round, which would suggest that the club will receive rather more than the no-frills one-camera coverage which the corporation have live streamed from the qualifying rounds.
It was arguably the greatest day in the history of a team which was only founded in its present form in the mid 1970s.
Their name was duly read out on national television during Monday night’s draw. For the record they are at home again, this time against AFC Wimbledon.
Already the BBC are calling this one of the ties of the round, which would suggest that the club will receive rather more than the no-frills one-camera coverage which the corporation have live streamed from the qualifying rounds.
Although the match against AFC Wimbledon might prove to be a brief moment in the sun,for the time being at least, the tantalising prospect of a tie against Spurs in the third round is still alive.
If that were to happen, they’d need to make space in the press box for rather more than just the Ham and High.
You’d be able see the new Spurs ground from Haringey’s ground if it wasn’t for the houses inbetween, but as the fans sang happily on Saturday…”We’re only a bus stop away.”
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