Opinion: Post-Burnley musings

What a great day and Burnley were thrashed 5-0 to-boot.

What an excellent day. Not only the match but also the friendships one makes while being part of a great football club.

Let us start in the thirty-second minute where we witnessed Son Heung-min scoring one of the goals of the Premier League season, if not an all-time great goal for us.

We returned to winning ways under our new coach by brushing aside Burnley. But the goal that got everybody talking was when Son picked up the ball on the edge of his area, before sprinting the length of the pitch – leaving a trail of Burnley players in his wake – and slotting in to give Spurs a 3-0 half-time lead. As we watched, we were mesmerised and then once the goal went in the stadium erupted. High-fives, back-slapping and hugging, were going around the stadium as if everybody was possessed. What we had witnessed was something that compared to Ricky Villa’s goal against Manchester City in the FA Cup final of 1981 (I was there as well).

That goal all but sealed victory after Harry Kane had thumped the home team ahead and Lucas Moura converted a second from close range.

Burnley had chances of their own in the first half, hitting the woodwork through Robbie Brady, but paid dearly for their defensive vulnerability. Kane took advantage of more slack defending to fire in the fourth, then combined with Moussa Sissoko – again allowed to waltz through unchallenged – for the fifth.

To be honest, it should have been 7 or 8, Burnley got off lightly.

A crowd of 58,401 witnessed that magical goal, including the ones by Kane, Moura and Sissoko. I am sure that that crowd went home on cloud nine. But that was just one game, we need more like that. So far, under Mourinho, we’ve won all our home games, won one away and lost one away.

But before all that, I got to Spurs early (nothing unusual there) and made my way to the Spurs shop to get my book of Steve Perryman signed by the great man himself. I also got my photo taken with him. While there I purchased a new – hot of the press – book on the History of Tottenham Hotspur FC (and it wasn’t cheap). By this time it was 11.30. I took my purchases back to my car and then made my way to the entrance where I go in. Twelve O’Clock quickly came around, a quick search (as usual, just in case I might be trying to smuggle a few naughties in) and then went to the reception for my programmes. Up to my floor, where I purchased a Cappuccino. While there I nodded to Paul Miller (“Maxi”), a great player, and then waited for the others to turn up. My prediction for that game was that we would win 4-1 (at least I got the amount right!).

When Terry turned up, he had three guests with him (two young ladies and a man). They were his Swiss guests. I had an interesting chat with them (I am half-Swiss myself, but without speaking the language). They looked up my grandad on Google (he played for the Swiss national side, including Bern FC). My Swiss uncle was a writer/ painter in that country. Terry’s friends were charming and jolly people. Hopefully, he converted them to being Spurs supporters. After that performance, why wouldn’t they be!?

In the break, I went and got tea and joined Terry and his guest. Beverley also joined us.

After the game, and full of excitement, we went down to the second-floor lounge, where the others were. Including Paul Miller, Cliff Jones and Micky Hazard. Stefania, one of our group, along with her son Ollie, had a couple of pies, and when they went up for drinks, Micky Hazard pinched one of them (he was starving, he said… obviously they don’t feed them). He did apologise and brought Stefania (or I should say, got free, as the food was free) three more pies. So; a claim to fame, Micky Hazard pinched my pie and replaced them with three others (I must say they were miniatures).

Stefania took my picture with Cliff Jones, and somebody else took my picture with Cliff and Beverley. Drinks were flowing (I was limited because I was driving), finally we were kicked out, and I got home at 9ish.

What a great day and result. My next adventure will be with Spurs in Munich tomorrow.

We are seventh in the table, as United and Wolves both climbed above us. But between 4^th and 8^th there are only a few points in it.

Tomorrow,we have a pointless match against Bayern Munich (as we are both through to the next round) and then we face Wolverhampton Wanderers away, which we need to win to keep up our prospects of getting into the top 4.