Well Did You Evah?

Dare we start to hope that after one of the least inspiring openings to a season that Leese is wresting control of the tiller of the good ship KTFC?  We are, at time of writing, enjoying a five match unbeaten run.  True, two of the games were against lower league opposition where we were second best for most of both games, and one involved a 145th minutes equaliser.  It's also true we've not truly looked convincing for 2 x 45 minute periods in a row.

But an unbeaten run is an unbeaten run.  

Perhaps one day we'll actually conduct our pre-season business during pre-season and actually have our preferred team assembled on day one of the season rather than by the start of October.  Mad I know, but might be worth a go?

Curiously, the only team we have effectively bossed this season, and some might say, "owned" is Tottenham Hotspur.  Ever since Harry Reilly put us one goal in front of Spurs as all-time record FA Cup goalscorers we seem to have poked a rather angry cockerel.....

Anyone not a Poppies fan needs to know 2 things about being "All-time top FA Cup goalscorers" 

(1) literally no-one outside the NN15 / NN16 postcode gives a flying f*ck about the record.

(2)  No one inside the same NN15 / NN16 postcode has ever put as much work into finding out who has let the most goals IN in the FA Cup.....

Whenever we've reached the top of the goalscoring pile in the past we've patted ourselves on the back but the rest of the footballing world has treated the news as very much of "local interest" only.

However, this time, no sooner had the various Poppies media outlets announced we'd climbed one goal above our illustrious but otherwise oblivious Premier League rivals, their supporters bit back and for 5 minutes we felt what was like to be Arsenal in their eyes.

Wow.  When Spurs fans bite, THEY BITE.  So, to answer a few of their points, in no particular order -

• Yes, the capacity of Latimer Park lags somewhat behind that of the imaginatively named "Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
• Yes, we've played a lot of teams from lower divisions than ourselves.  Unlike yourselves presumably.
• Yes, we come into the competition earlier.  We also invariably go out of it a lot earlier too.
• No, we haven't actually won the FA Cup.  Mind you, we've won it the same number of times as Tottenham have since Nirvana first stumbled into a recording studio.

Historically Spurs were never near the top of the FACA-TGS chart.  But, over the past decade or so the footballing Gods have been extraordinarily kind to them.  Not kind enough to let them actually win the competition, but, given some of the clubs they have drawn, they bloody well should have!

In the last dozen seasons, other than numerous Championship and League One sides, they've come up against the mighty footballing forces of Cheltenham, Stevenage, Colchester, Wycombe twice, AFC Wimbledon, Newport, Marine and Morecambe.  I'm sure they all tried their best against Tottenham.  They certainly gave it their best when they all played the Poppies in recent seasons!

Even when playing slightly more elevated clubs Spurs have managed to wangle quite a few goal-strewn replays to bolster their tally.  In 2010 alone they had goal-filled replays against Leeds, Bolton and Fulham.  They've since followed up by dipping their wicks into several other lower league teams by drawing away and stuffing them back at White Hart Lane.

We might need to get our shooting boots on against Hitchin because I get a sense the lowest placed team in the FA Cup 3rd round may well be planning a trip to North London in a few months time.....

"Fackin Hell, Reilly's just
scored against Sporting Khalsa!"