Tottenham Hotspur - Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

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Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

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Ground: 109

Date: Wednesday 4th March 2020

Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Norwich City (AET, 2-3 on penalties)

FA Cup 5th Round

Attendance: 58,007 (official)

Tottenham Hotspur - 5 Facts

1) Tottenham Hotspur were founded in 1882 as Hotspur, changing to the current name two years later. In 1901, the club won the FA Cup for the first time and became the first and only non-league club to do so since the formation of the Football League in 1888. The club then joined the Football League in 1908.

2) The club experienced significant success in the early 1960s, winning the league and cup double in the 1960/61 season, defending their FA Cup title the following season and then becoming the first British team to win a UEFA competition by winning the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1963.

3) In 1972, the club won the inaugural UEFA Cup and became the first British club to win two major European trophies in the process. This was in between two seasons which saw the club win the League Cup and was followed by an FA Cup win in 1981. The club then won the UEFA Cup again in 1984, before winning another FA Cup in 1991.

4) The club were founder members of the Premier League in the 1992/93 season and have remained there ever since. Since the 2009/10 season, the club have consistently finished in the top 6, with a best finish of 2nd in the 2016/17 season.

5) The club last won silverware in the 2007/08 season when they won the League Cup for the fourth time (the third came in 1999). The club reached the final again in 2015 but lost to Chelsea. The club also reached the Champions League final last season, but lost 2-0 to Liverpool.

My Visit

I was never able to get to the old White Hart Lane, so when our promotion was confirmed at the end of last season this was one of the grounds I was most looking forward to visiting, though the date of the league match was an awkward one for me: it fell just before I was planning to head back to Guildford for University, which would have meant heading into London midweek, heading back home and then heading through London again back to Guildford on the Sunday.

Ultimately, any thoughts about that I had proved to be meaningless, as demand for tickets for the league visit was absurd, with tickets selling out almost as quickly as they had gone on sale; obviously I wasn't the only one eager to visit Tottenham's new ground. As such, I thought my opportunity to visit wouldn't come for quite a while unless we ended up there in the cup, so it caught my attention when the 5th Round draw placed us away against either Southampton or Tottenham.

Either of those would have been feasible options from Guildford (although extra-time and penalties may have made that a stretch if we had been playing Southampton), so I kept a close eye on how the replay went and was pleased to see Tottenham come out on top. Having already missed one chance to visit their ground, I wasn't going to miss it the second time, especially with relegation already looking like a distinct possibility at that point.

However, I was worried that demand would once again outstrip supply, especially if we received the same allocation as in the league fixture. Thankfully, as with Arsenal in the League Cup two seasons ago, we requested and received an allocation of around 9,000, which made me more confident that I would be able to get a ticket. 

When tickets eventually went on sale, I had made sure to set my alarm to wake up early and get on the ticket website immediately, just in case. Surprisingly, unlike what I remember with trying to get Arsenal tickets, there was no real queue and I was onto the website almost immediately, paying £25 for my ticket. 

I then just had to wait for it to arrive, though as I couldn't have multiple addresses on my account it ended up being sent home first, meaning I then had to wait for it to be sent to Guildford from there. With plenty of time to spare, though, this didn't pose a problem at all. As for train tickets, I didn't end up ordering those until yesterday morning, after taking a while to consider which of the stations closest to the ground to go to (I eventually chose Northumberland Park, with that being closest to the away end as far as I could tell).

The train tickets I ordered ended up costing £17 rather than the £13 I had anticipated (probably because I left buying them until the day of travel) and my train into London left Guildford at around 4:35pm. This meant I was leaving the house just after 4pm, walking to the station through the rain (and desperately hoping my match ticket remained dry in my coat pocket) and getting there with ten minutes to spare.

From Guildford, the journey to the ground was perhaps more convoluted than it really needed to be. I started by heading to Vauxhall station, which took about an hour as only the slow Waterloo-bound services stop there. From there, I went onto the Underground on the Victoria Line towards Tottenham Hale, getting off there to get a train for the last leg of the journey towards Northumberland Park station.

Eventually, I arrived there at around 6:30pm, walking for ten minutes to get to the ground. I got a few photos from the outside as I worked my way towards the away entrance, before preparing myself for the very high levels of security at the entrances: sniffer dogs and airport security scanning gates before being let in. Certainly tighter security than anything I've ever come across before, but understandably so in the current climate. 

Either way, as tight as the security was, it was relatively quick to get through and into the concourse. At this point, there was just over an hour to go before kick-off, yet the concourse was already filled to the brim with Norwich fans and the atmosphere was great. I spent a few minutes down there, buying a programme for £3.50 as I did, before heading up into the ground to find my seat. 

Once I did, I was reasonably pleased to find that my seat was near the front and low down, rather than higher up like some people had (I'd had to deal with that at Burnley back in September, so was happy to be lower down and to actually have a good view of the entire pitch). For a moment, I was concerned about getting wet in the rain, but the roof high above meant I stayed dry throughout. I then took a few photos of the ground as I waited for kick-off, remaining standing throughout the match and only sitting down at half-time, full-time and half-time of extra time.

Being fully honest, I wasn't expecting too much out of this match. Our away record this season has been poor and we haven't been able to string multiple good results together all season, so after beating Leicester last Friday in the league I wasn't expecting as much last night. However, with Spurs missing Son and Kane, I was hoping that we would be able to work the magic of the cup once again.

Here's an official match report from the club website on a long, long match which eventually saw us triumph in the penalty shoot-out:

Spurs took an early lead when Jan Vertonghen nodded home a Giovani Lo Celso free-kick and it could have been more at half-time but for two outstanding saves from Tim Krul at either end of the half.

City probed in the second-half and got their reward on 78 minutes when Josip Drmic profited from poor goalkeeping to tap home after Michel Vorm parried Kenny McLean's rasping effort.

Drmic's equaliser sent the game into extra-time and then penalties, with Krul saving twice to see City prevail 3-2 on spot-kicks.

Daniel Farke made four changes to the side which beat Leicester City on Friday night. The back four remained the same but there were plenty of changes in the midfield and attacking ranks with Josip Drmic replacing Teemu Pukki up top. Lukas Rupp and Mario Vrancic came into the midfield in place of Kenny McLean and Ondrej Duda, and Tom Trybull was introduced to anchor the team in the middle in place of Alex Tettey.

Despite plenty of noise inside the stadium, largely being created by the 9,000 strong travelling support, the early exchanges were timid until Spurs broke at pace on 11 minutes. Giovani Lo Celso was found unmarked in the area but his low effort was beaten away well by Tim Krul.

Spurs took the lead moments later via a set-piece. Lo Celso turned provider after Steven Bergwijn was fouled by Emi Buendia on the left-hand side. His menacing delivery was met by Vertonghen who climbed above Jamal Lewis to head home at the back post.

Spurs went on to boss the next 20 minutes or so and their threat from wide areas was causing City issues. The pacey pair of Moura and Bergwijn were proving difficult to handle.

City finally got into their stride on the half hour mark. Rupp was found in the box on 32 minutes by Vrancic but after cutting onto his right he was crowded out and Spurs managed to clear.

Then Buendia weaved his way through the challenges to test Vorm before the Spurs keeper almost spilled into his own net from a long-range Rupp strike. City were rallying and Vrancic had a goalbound strike blocked on 36 minutes before the following corner was nodded over by Trybull.

Spurs were then presented with a terrific opportunity to double their lead on the stroke of half-time. Trybull played a pass to Vrancic in his own penalty area who was closed down by Moura but Krul was on hand to block Moura’s strike from close proximity.

The two sides traded blows at the start of the second 45. First, Vrancic clipped the ball to Drmic who chested down for Buendia but his strike was deflected over from a narrow angle.

Then substitute Gedson Fernandes shot straight at Krul before Rupp chested, volleyed and tested Vorm low to his right.

Farke made changes just after the hour mark with Kenny McLean and Adam Idah introduced in the hope of them giving City fresh impetus. The former was straight into the action, spreading a crossfield ball from left to right, with Aarons there to cut back to Drmic but his shot was dragged wide.

McLean was involved once again in City's equaliser. His thumping drive was parried by Vorm on 78 minutes but Drmic was on hand to scramble the ball home to send the away fans into raptures.

However, the goal kicked Spurs into action once more and City were having to dig deep to stay in the game. It was only level because of a sensational Godfrey block on 86 minutes after Lo Celso's strike seemed destined for the back of the net.

Spurs were almost in again on 89 minutes when a searching pass almost found the onrushing Dele Alli but Krul once again was on hand to race clear and beat the ball away from danger.

The game went into extra-time and both teams were out on their feet, although City went close just after the break when Adam Idah nodded Jamal Lewis's cross over.

The game headed to extra-time and it was City who held their nerve. Eric Dier scored the first for Spurs but it was all downhill from there with Erik Lamela, Troy Parrott and Fernandes all being thwarted. For City, Idah, Stiepermann and Cantwell struck the blows to send the Canaries through.

From my perspective, we were very sloppy in the first half, but eventually got up to speed and deservedly equalised, before holding on through extra time with many players running on empty and deservedly winning the shoot-out, leading to delirium in the stands (my voice still has yet to recover from it all at the time of writing).

Naturally, progress out of the ground afterwards was quite slow, not least because I chose to stay through the celebrations at the end for a while. However, once I was actually out of the ground and heading back towards Northumberland Park, it was fairly easy to navigate through the crowds. However, problems began upon getting close to the station.

For starters, the stewards controlling the crowds had made a reasonable decision to split the crowd based on which direction of trains they were taking, but the southbound line (which I was in) was ineffectively controlled, as people could simply bypass it entirely by heading down a side street. This slowed things down behind as the stewards wouldn't let the southbound line move further forwards. With the northbound line moving much more consistently, people quickly became frustrated and eventually pushed through the stewards, ignoring their laughable threats to close the station in response.

This only temporarily solved the issue, though, as there was another set of stewards and gates immediately in front of the station to further control the flow of people.  Just as I was arriving at this point, they closed our gates and started letting people heading northbound through. This meant that time to get the train I needed was very tight, even more so by the time it opened again several minutes later. I moved towards the platform as quickly as I could manage, but I still ended up missing the 11pm train by a matter of moments.

Fortunately, extra trains were put on so another one left five minutes later. From there, I once again got off at Tottenham Hale and headed onto the Underground, but this time I opted for a different route towards Guildford. I initially headed on the Victoria Line as before, but rather than heading to Vauxhall and getting a slow train back to Guildford, I got off at Warren Street to change onto the Northern Line and head to Waterloo. 

With this plan, I was somehow just able to get myself onto the last quick train back to Guildford. This eventually got me back into Guildford at 12:25am and I was then back at the house 25 minutes later, staying up for another hour or so to rehydrate and unwind before heading to bed.

For my next groundhop, I was hoping to head to Fareham Town this Saturday, but given that it has been raining all day here in Guildford, I have little hope that it - or any of my other options on grass - will go ahead - so I'll be looking at 3G options to prepare for that seemingly inevitable eventuality.

The Ground

The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is the newest in the Football League, having opened in April 2019 after White Hart Lane was demolished and the site entirely redeveloped. With a capacity of 62,303, it is one of the largest grounds in the country and the largest club ground in London (i.e. larger than the grounds of Arsenal, Chelsea, West Ham etc.).

It's an impressive new build, with plenty of leg room in all seats and multiple tiers of seating on all four sides of the ground. The concourse is very spacious and has plenty of food and drink outlets available, all of which are cashless. Still, besides the sheer scale of it, the ground does not have much in the way of character, very much being a uniform bowl.

The current record attendance at the ground is 61,104 for a league game against Chelsea last December. 

Photos