In sport, the hardest steps to take are the final ones, the ones which take you to glory. For Spurs this season there have been so many steps forward, so much promise but, for now, those final steps remain elusive.
April 24, 2017 08:35The FA Cup semi-final was a compelling game, ebb and flow, dominated by the team in lilywhite but ultimately the victory belonged to the team who knew how to foul, persistently and not get booked, how to soak up pressure and make the most of the few chances that came their way. How to take the sting out of the game by extensive treatment for 'injuries' just when Spurs were building a head of steam. The dark arts you might call them. They are a vital if unedifying component of winning sides. They do what they have to to win.
In contrast, earlier on semi-final day, Lincoln City won their eighth successive league game to lift the National League title. In their previous two games Danny Cowley's troops had played well below their levels but in both games they came back from a goal down to win with two goals in the dying moments. In one of those games the winner was a 25-yard screamer of a free-kick from left-back and my client, Sam Habergham.
Quite what magic dust makes a side winners when it really matters remains a mystery. No doubt alongside those dark arts, it requires a little rub of the green and more than anything the ability to both minimise errors and clinically take chances. On both those counts at least this group of Spurs players have improved almost beyond recognition over the last few seasons. They are the real deal and in the words of Cowley, "if you trust in the process the results will come".
I trust the Spurs process, I trust the manager and I believe that ultimately the results will come.
In the meantime we will learn much about the mentality of the team in the next seven days with London derbies away to Palace and home to Arsenal - in each case after Chelsea have played their fixture.
Come what may, this season has been a seminal one for the Club - progress on and off the pitch, more Premier League points than ever before, Champions League group stage qualification all but secured a month prior to the end of the season. This young side another year older, wiser and experienced in the pursuit of the title. All whilst watching the future literallly rising from the ground week by week in front of our eyes.
Whilst undoubtedly winning the FA Cup would have signaled the crossing of the rubicon for this team, one semi-final defeat however painful on the day (and regardless of the doom and gloom merchants on social media) does nothing to diminish the view that this Spurs side is in an inexorable upward arc.
As I watched Lincolns's fans stream on to the Sincil Bank pitch to rejoice at their first title in decades and a return to the Football League, I was struck by the certainty that Spurs too will cross the rubicon, it's a matter of time. And when it comes, in all it's glory, it will have been worth the wait thanks in no small part to the character building journey.
Jonathan Adelman is a season-ticket holder at Spurs, and also co-manages North London Raiders B in the MGBSFL