NORMAN GILLER'S SPURS ODYSSEY BLOG No 563
Submitted by Norman Giller

Did you feel it? Did you sense it? That ugly, improvised late-late equalising goal by Dominic Solanke was to my ancient eyes a thing of beauty. I am prepared to put my head above the parapet and declare that moment as the turning point of our so-far miserable season.

Coward that I am, I watched the match from behind the sofa with my mate Lilywhite and we forgave stand-in skipper Solanke all his previous misses as he somehow managed to steer the ball into the ManU net to clinch a richly deserved point.

I would not care to be Coventry coming to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium next Monday. Somebody, soon, has to get a caning. Let's hope it's Frank Lampard's team that falls under the wheels of Roberto De Zerbi's expensive Spurs machine.

Defeat by fellow strugglers Coventry cannot be contemplated. I will not mention it again (just the thought of it makes me come out in a sky-blue rash as my mind automatically switches to 1987. Why oh why do I punish myself?).

As our guru Paul H. Smith reports HERE, it might easily have been Manchester United who got chewed up in that first-half when Spurs coulda, shoulda gone two or three goals clear. But it was the old, old story of missed chances after promising approach work.

United, galvanised by our old servant Michael Carrick, pulled themselves together and smash and grabbed their way into a flattering lead before the game degenerated into a bad tempered playground scrap.

It culminated in a red card for the hot-tempered Rodrigo Bentancur, whose head butt on United veteran Luke Shaw I cannot possibly condone, but it showed this Spurs squad has fighting spirit. Mind you, I could not have gone as far as the excitable De Zerbi, who kissed and praised Rodrigo after the match! This was Latin passion by the bucketload.

What the fracas revealed is that De Zerbi has put together a team that cares and the players are clearly prepared to battle for the shirt. It showed in the way Solanke snatched that equaliser, a much harder chance than several he had botched during Tottenham's long spells of ascendancy.

Now Spurs simply have to sink Coventry. Anything but a convincing victory will be unacceptable. See you here on Tuesday for the hoped-for celebrations. We've all forgotten what a League win looks like.

COYS

Thanks to that interminable international break, I had time to catch up on my reading and I came across the most riveting football book published this year, A GLORIOUS LIFE, the Danny Blanchflower story, from the inestimable Pitch Publishing stable.

Superbly written and researched by author and Spurs authority Mike Donovan, it is a must read for any Tottenham supporter who wants to know what made Danny and the entire Double team tick.

Danny was my close friend and Express Newspapers colleague for many years, but there are whole passages in this book that are new to me and gives its fascinating subject a fully rounded finish. He was the most erudite, talkative, talented - and often most infuriating - football man ever to cross my path, and this 100th anniversary biography does him full justice. Beg, borrow or steal a copy, or put it on your Christmas wish list.

I was such a committed Danny Blanchflower fan that I composed the following verse to the man who was poetry in motion. Imagine it sung to Londonderry Air ...

Oh Danny Boy, the Spurs, the Spurs are calling
From stand to stand and down the Shelf side
The summer's gone, but memories are flying
Of glory-glory days that have never died.

But come ye back when the pitch is in meadow
Or when The Lane's packed and white with snow
'Tis we'll be there in sunshine and shadow
Oh Danny boy, oh Danny boy, we love you so.

Come on you Spurs.

Here we go with the seventh week of the quiz that tests your knowledge of Tottenham players and club history ...

Which player was top League goal scorer in Tottenham's Double season of 1960-61 and which club did he join from Spurs?

Email your answer to me at soqleague@gmail.com and make the subject heading Quiz Week 7. Deadline: mid-night this Saturday. I will do my best to respond to all who take part. Answer in next week's Blog here at Spurs Odyssey.

The rules are the same as in the previous 12 seasons. I ask a two-pronged question with three points at stake - two for identifying the player and one for the supplementary question. In the closing weeks of the competition I break the logjam of all-knowing Spurs-history experts with a real stinker of a tie-breaking poser that is based on opinion rather than fact. This is when I lose what few friends I have.

This season's main prize will be a framed certificate announcing the winner as SOQL champion 2027, plus three signed books to be revealed at a later date.

Last time: Which former Spurs captain arrived at White Hart Lane from Craven Cottage and against which team did he lead Tottenham to a UEFA Cup final victory?

Answer: Alan Mullery/Wolves

See you back here on Tuesday, when I hope we are celebrating a victory over Coventry City

COYS!