GUEST BLOG - Neil Pearson talks Spurs, Bobby Robson and Eric Cantona

We had the pleasure of Neil’s company at SJP for the first match of a new era following the takeover. He is an avid Spurs fan and he shared his love for his club, and for football in general, with Toontalk. Many thanks, Neil! 👍

Neil Pearson: a background

Neil John Pearson is a British actor, known for his work on television. He was nominated for the 1994 BAFTA TV Award for Best Actor for Between the Lines. His other television roles include Drop the Dead Donkey, All the Small Things, Waterloo Road, and In the Club.

I have supported Tottenham Hotspur since 1967, my longest relationship by far. It began in the school playground, when in May that year Tottenham played Chelsea in the FA Cup Final, the first time the final had been contested by two London sides. (It became known as the Cockney Cup Final. This must have been thought up by a hack from up North: Neither Tottenham nor Chelsea lie within the the sound of Bow Bells). In the playground in 1967, for absolutely no reason that I can think of, if you supported Chelsea you were a Mod and if Tottenham you were a Rocker. I was eight, but apparently I was a Rocker. I’m pretty sure I didn’t have a motorbike, a black leather jacket or any brothel-creepers at the time, but I was a Rocker, so Tottenham it was.

All these years later this entirely random decision takes me regularly to watch the team and their various ups and downs. On the downside I’m a South Londoner so the journey to White Hart Lane has always been a nightmare. Very much on the up side however, I don’t support Chelsea.

The first match I attended was Chelsea’s home game against the newly promoted Crystal Palace: 30th August 1969. I’ve had to look up the result as I couldn’t remember the score, but I remember the day very well. Not the game, the day. It was hot. I had to hurry to keep up with a group of mostly older lads who were supposed to be looking after me. We got to the ground very early, long before the gates opened. Once inside, I was frightened by the crush as more and more people arrived. During the match itself, I was unable to see and felt unnerved to be surrounded by adults who were shouting and snarling. After that experience, regular match going didn’t kick in for years.

I went to school in Suffolk and throughout the 1970s Ipswich Town became my adopted team. Bobby Robson was the Manager and he came to our school once to give a motivationaltalk to distinctly unmotivated pupils – and during the 1970s Ipswich Town were making a big noise in Europe. School trips to those evening European games were magical and cemented in me the lifetime habit of match going.

Pet hates? Yellow cards for shirt-waving after scoring a goal. Why? Who thinks this is a good rule? Have the sponsors, whose names on these shirts must be seen as much as possible, had a word with the FA? The rule is an attempt to legislate joy out of the game. If taking your shirt off after a game is a bookable offence (and it is) an if a referee can issue yellow or red cards, then why doesn’t anyone ever get booked for swapping shirts. DRIVES. ME. NUTS.

Favourite moment? I should probably be ashamed of it but I’m not. I could go with a Hoddle moment, or a Gascoigne. I could go further afield : Germany 1 England 5. All of these have given me great pleasure but my favourite moment gave me something beyond pleasure: When, in 1995, Manchester United’s Eric Cantona took the ‘Kick It Out’ slogan a wee bit too literally and made a two-footed, throat-high lunge at a putrid little racist in the stands during a match against Crystal Palace. I felt gratitude, joy and no guilt whatsoever about what he did that day. With that action, Cantona single-handedly (or two-footedly), ensured that the issue of racism in and around the game remained at the top of the agenda of sport and made racism unignorable. He was punished severely for his actions; so were the suffragettes. He shouldn’t have done it but I was pleased he did.

Hopes for the future? Spurs to finish at least 4th every season and play in the Champions League. Also a premiership manager – any premier league manager – willing to speak publicly about the issue of homophobia in football. Oh and John Terry to be sent off by a black, female referee!’

Neil Pearson