White Hart Lane - Home of Tottenham ! (White Hart Lane (Tottenham Hotspur FC))

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Product:	White Hart Lane (Tottenham Hotspur FC)
Date:	20/12/00 (63 review reads)
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Advantages: Spurs don't lose there

Disadvantages: None

White Hart Lane is in my opinion, one of the best Football stadiums in England at the moment. The capacity may only be 36,200 but you can always expect to see a nearly full house when Tottenham play there. There have been talks about Tottenham expanding White Hart Lane to increase their capacity and I feel that this would be a great idea.

Tottenham Hotspurs moved to its present site, White Hart Lane, in 1899. At that time, the capacity of the stadium was about 32,000.

Work was started a few years ago on the new north stand, which has now been finished, increasing the total capacity to 36,500. Preliminary, plans have now been drawn up for the redevelopment of the East Stand. During the time between when Tottenham moved to White Hart Lane and the present time, a lot of work has been done on the stadium and at one point; the total capacity was about 80,000.

So far this season, White Hart Lane seems to be the best place for Tottenham to be because they have played 10 games there, won 7 and drawn 3. Their most recent home game was against Midlesbrough, which finished 0-0. This is one of the best home records in the premiership so far this season, which is brilliant for Tottenham seeing as their away form is one of the worst in the premiership this season. They have played 9 games away from home and they have lost 7 of them, drawing the other 2. Tottenham's recent home game was very crucial for George Graham because it was likely that if they had lost, he could have been on his way out of Tottenham. But, with White Hart Lane full of people and the fans getting on Tottenham's side, Tottenham defeated a talented Liverpool side 2-1.

Having been to White Hart Lane many times, I can proudly say as a supporter that the stadium is a great place to go to. There are many food places for people to eat and there are also a few areas where people can play games, to do with football and Tottenham. Tottenham's changing rooms are also ver
y nice and people who visit the stadium always feel welcome in these sort of areas.

In my opinion, White Hart Lane should be expanded so that the capacity of the stadium is a lot more. The reason for this is because if the stadium was expanded, I reckon that it would still see nearly a full house in Tottenham's games because of their brilliant record so far this season at White Hart Lane.

Tottenham haven't lost at White Hart Lane since April 2000 and this is a great achievement for the club. Hopefully they can keep this record going for a long time, like Manchester United have done at Old Trafford.

This season's record so far is as follows:

Tottenham 3 Ipswich 1 - The first game of the season was against Ipswich who everybody thought would be relegated this season. White Hart Lane was packed with people as Tottenham won the game 3-1. Ipswich had taken the lead but goals from Stephen Carr, Les Ferdinand and Darren Anderton won the game for Tottenham.

Tottenham 3 Everton 2 - This was supposed to be an easy game for Tottenham against a poor Everton side, but that didn't look the case as Everton soon took a 2-0 lead. But, luckily for Tottenham, Sergei Rebrov scored a vital goal before half time. Although the fans were annoyed at half time when Spurs were losing 2-1, but the second half saw Tottenham scoring 2 goals and ended up winning it 3-2. Sergei Rebrov scored 2 of the goals and Les Ferdinand scored the winner.

Tottenham 1 West Ham 0 - This was Tottenham's first London Derby of the season and they won the game from a Sol Campbell goal in the second half. The match was fairly even but Campbell's magnificent header was enough to see off a good West Ham side.

Tottenham 0 Man City 0 - This was Tottenham's only draw at White Hart Lane so far this season. Tottenham were all over Manchester City and they should have absolutely stuffed them. They didn't concede any goals, but
the fans were annoyed not to see them score themselves.

Tottenham 3 Derby 1 - Tottenham looked like stuffing Derby, who were at that point in time, bottom of the league without a win. But the score ended up at only 3-1 to Tottenham, which was very disappointing. Oyvind Leonardson scored 2 of Tottenham’s goals and the other was a great goal by Stephen Carr, who always seems to score great goals.

Tottenham 2 Sunderland 1 - This game saw the first sending off of the season for Tottenham in Ben Thatcher, but that didn't stop Tottenham from beating Sunderland 2-1. Tottenham took the lead through Tim Sherwood, but Sunderland equalised, only for Chris Armstrong to go on a dazzling run and slot the ball past Sorensson for the winner.

Tottenham 2 Liverpool 1 - In a game where everyone thought Tottenham would lose, Tottenham won the game and it was deserved. They had many injury problems and so the youngsters had to fill in. Luckily for Tottenham, this wasn’t a disaster as all of the youngsters had fantastic games and one of them was even man of the match. Ledley King was the man of the match with Luke Young and Alton Thelwell having very good games.

Tottenham 3 Leicester City 0 - This game turned out to be quite surprising as Leicester had only conceded one goal, away from home, before this game. But Tottenham were on fire as Les Ferdinand scored his first Hatrick for Tottenham with some excellent goals. This was a great day for Les, apart from the fact that after the match, a fan stole the match ball, which Les was desperate for, to remember this great day.

Tottenham 1 Arsenal 1 – This game was always going to be fast and furious and by half time, there had been more than 30 fouls. This was expected, as it was a London derby clash between 2 bitter rivals. Tottenham took the lead through a fantastic header from Sergei Rebrov, in the 31st minute and it was looking as though Tottenham were going to take al
l 3 points, until a Patrick Viera goal in the 89th minute made the game all square. This was the final goal as the game finished 1-1. This was now the second time in a week that Tottenham had conceded an equalising goal in the 89th minute. Let’s hope that this doesn’t happen in their next home game against lowly Middlesbrough.

Tottenham 0 Middlesbrough 0 - What can I say about this game, I know, Tottenham were very disappointing. All I can say is that the fans of White Hart Lane will be glad that Alan Sugar is soon not going to be the chairman anymore. Anyway, back to the game, the reason why Tottenham were very disappointing was because they were playing against a team that were in the relegation zone, and they were playing them at the incredible stadium of White Hart Lane. So obviously, a win was expected of Tottenham. But, once again they just could not seem to score. They were playing in Middlesbrough's half for most of the match, but they just couldn't find a way through to score the vital goal that would have given them their 8th win of the season, at White Hart Lane. Instead, it remains at 7 wins and 3 draws. During the match, Sergei Rebrov hit the bar when really he should have scored. As for Chris Armstrong, well...he scored 2 goals during the match, but they were both disallowed for offside. As a Tottenham fan, you might think that I am being a bit bias, but I know for a fact that one of his goals was not offside and the other could have gone either way. But shouldn’t be an excuse for Tottenham. They created enough chances to win the game, but they didn’t score.

Tottenham 4 Newcastle 2 - This has got to be one of the most entertaining games of the season so far. This game saw 6 goals, 3 penalties and 3 sending offs. It all started after a disappointing first 20 minutes, when Nolberto Solano scored the opener after 23 minutes. But the lead didn't last long as Gary Doherty powered a header in 4 minutes la
ter. 2 minutes after that, the first penalty was awarded to Tottenham. This happened after Darren Anderton was tripped and he took the penalty, which saw Tottenham go 2-1 up. Tottenham then received another penalty, 3minutes later when Doherty’s header was going in and the ball hit Nolberto Solano’s arm on the line. This incident also saw the first red card of the game as Solano was sent off. This time though, the Newcastle goalkeeper, Harper, saved Anderton’s penalty with his legs. But Tottenham soon scored their third goal anyway as Sergei Rebrov scored the best goal of the game. Doherty put Rebrov through, who then bent the ball around Harper with the outside of his right foot. That was the end of the entertainment for the first half. But that wasn’t the end of the entertainment for the game. Soon after half time, Dyer went one-on-one with Neil Sullivan and he appeared to have caught Dyer’s legs when trying to round the goalkeeper. This meant that the ref had to send off Tottenham’s goalkeeper, so he became the second player to be sent off during the game. Dyer then converted the penalty to make the score 3-2 to Tottenham, with Ian Walker now in goal for Tottenham. The third sending off soon followed as Dyer thought he was fouled, but he didn’t get a free kick. He then started swearing at the linesman and he was sent off for dissent. At this point, the score was 3-2 and the amount of players on each team, on the pitch, was 10-9 to Tottenham. The final goal came after good work from many Tottenham players as Les Ferdinand powered a header into the bottom corner of Harper’s goal. This happened in the 77th minute and so really, 3 points were staying at White Hart Lane with Tottenham. The final score was 4-2 and at the final whistle, White Hart Lane erupted with cheers from the home fans.

So, as you can see, White Hart Lane seems to be a great place for Tottenham and hopefully, they can break a few records by n
ot losing at home for a long time. They haven't actually lost at White Hart Lane since April 2000, which is a great achievement.

At the moment, Tottenham have got one of the best home records in the premiership, but Tottenham's away record is one of the worst in the premiership. If Tottenham can win a few away games then maybe they will have a great chance of getting into Europe this season. Tottenham recently played Man United away, which meant that another defeat looked like happening. Well it did, but I am glad to finally say that United's home record has finally been stopped. United hadn't lost at Old Trafford for about 27 months, but Liverpool recently beat them 1-0.

I hoped you enjoyed reading my opinion! It will be kept up-to-date.

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