It seems like several months ago (wait....it was several months ago...) when, on 4th March 2020, my 2019/2020 FA Cup journey came to a close. After visits to Erith & Belvedere, Chertsey Town, Cray Wanderers, Lutterworth Town, Portland United, Kings Langley, Wealdstone, York City, Northampton Town, Brighton & Hove Albion and West Ham United it was time for the 5th round of the FA Cup.
It wasn't supposed to end this way of course. It was supposed to end on 23rd May 2020 at Wembley Stadium, after the national stadium was supposed to have hosted the semi-finals, and wherever I was fortunate enough to nab a ticket for the quarter-finals. In fact, I had blagged a ticket for Carrow Road for the quarter-finals thanks to the lovely Diane. There's just one thing you need to know about Diane. She has beautiful eyes. Not my words (although I of course agree), but the words of a mysterious admirer. Beautiful eyes. Diane. Norwich.
It was Mother's Day at Carrow Road and the ground was packed to the rafters for the visit of Manchester United. An action packed game ended 3-3 after 90 minutes. Extra-time served up chances galore, a couple of sendings off and a share of another 4 goals. After a 5-5 draw, it was onto penalties...
Of course, that's not what happened. On Saturday 27th June, Man United beat Norwich 2-1 (after extra time) with a late Harry Maguire winner. Arsenal, Man City and Chelsea completed the semi-finals line-up with an eventual victory by Arsenal in the final on August 1st. No crowds, but that was it for the 2019/20 FA Cup. What started on Friday August 9th 2019 in the extra preliminary round ended 359 days later in a COVID19-inspired empty Wembley Stadium.
Fifth Round: 4 March 2020
Cast your minds back if you can. Imagine the scenes. People, on a train. People, drinking in a pub. Together. People in a stadium, watching sport. People. I know it's crazy talk, but in the back of my mind, I think it did actually happen.
Diane's beautiful eyes were at The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, as was I with my good friends Phil and Nige. Diane's eyes were safely segregated away with the rest of the Norwich fans whilst me, Phil and Nige were expectantly looking forward to the silky skills of Serge Aurier and the rest of Jose's men.
Tottenham Hotspur FC v Norwich City FC
The last time I saw a Spurs home match was at White Hart Lane in October 1996 and the visit of The Villa to the old stadium. Two words. Hitler Salute. Two more. Mark Bosnich. "A Nazi Bit of Work" according to the News of the World.
My other main connection to Spurs is that I've got a 7 inch vinyl copy of Ossie's Dream (Spurs Are On Their Way to Wembley) from the 1981 cup final squad, with some assistance from the mighty Chas & Dave.
Moving on,...the stadium is quite something these days following its dramatic rebuild from 2016 to 2019. Two words. Beavertown Microbrewery. Or is that four words?
Ticket £25. Programme £3.50. Very good chicken balti pie, £5.
Attendance: 58,007
The stadium does a great job of paying its respects to the 'old' White Hart Lane. For example, bits of the old ground have been used in the construction of the new one and there's a plaque showing the precise location of the old centre spot. I'd suggest that's a pretty good effort, although actual Spurs fans will have their own views I'm sure. It's a fantastic multi-usage stadium though, with great facilities and loads of bars. Particularly mind-blowing was the bar which used some sort of mystic wizardry to fill the glass upwards from the bottom. Nige & Phil claimed it was something to do with magnets, but I'm having none of it. Pure wizardry...
...unlike Spurs on the night. No wizardry on show at all. There was only ever one winner of this match,... that was the nature of the playing regulations. No replays for this mid-week FA Cup fifth round extravaganza. Extra time may have been required (it was) with the possibility of penalties (yep), to sort out precisely how Norwich were going to beat Spurs.
By general consensus, Spurs weren't great although Jose said he was ecstatic with their performance. Perhaps something got lost in translation.
Diane, her beautiful eyes and the rest of the Norwich travelling support gradually eased their way into various levels of enjoyment as the match progressed. In all fairness, Spurs started and finished the game the better side. After 13 minutes, Jan Vertonghen's header put Spurs in the lead, but then Norwich began to show a little more, and then more and in the second half equalised following a shocker from Spurs goalie Michael Vorm. Josip Drmic the Norwich scorer.
Spurs pushed on after the equaliser and tired legs tried hard in extra time, but it was Tim Krul's water bottle that had the last laugh, with its notes of Spurs penalty takers and their preferred penalty placement. Krul saved two penalties and it was Norwich through to the quarter-finals to be played in front of nobody at the end of June.
Then Eric Dier made his way into the stands to confront a fan, totally ignoring social distancing way before totally ignoring social distancing became a thing.
In other news, my prediction of Birmingham City to lift the trophy on 23rd May 2020 proved to be wrong on so many levels. A minor glitch was Blues losing 1-0 at Leicester on the same night as the Spurs-Norwich game. That defeat allowed Blues to concentrate on the league which, after the COVID lockdown, they clearly failed to do resulting in another last day relegation/survival moment to go with all of the other last day relegation/survival moments over the years. See you next season, Norwich.
That was it then. My attempts to see a match in every round successful in terms of getting to every round it was possible to get to, but a failure in not seeing anything past the 5th round.
The draw for the 2020/21 extra preliminary round has now been made and there are a great many matches that look attractive. In ordinary times, I think I'd be off to Cowes Sports on the Isle of Wight for an overseas trip. Or to see Chelmsley Town making their FA Cup debut near where I spent my teenage years. However, in these extra-ordinary times with no crowds or very limited crowds for the foreseeable, it may not be so simple.
Watch this space...
To anyone who has spent any time at all reading any of this nonsense, thank you.
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