Emotional return to the Lane for family of one of Club's founders, Bobby Buckle

Three generations of the family of one of the Club's founders, Bobby Buckle, were together at White Hart Lane for the recent match against Southampton.

Bobby's grandson Michael Mackman was joined by great-grandson Peter Kerrigan and great-great-grandson Leigh Stutchbury with both Peter and Leigh travelling all the way from Australia, where a number of the extended Buckle family are now based.

One of the boys who helped form the Club in a meeting famously held under a gas lamp on the High Road all the way back in 1882, Bobby was our first captain and scored the Club's first recorded goal. He became Honorary Secretary in the early 1890s and was on the Club's first-ever Board of Directors in 1898. He played a key role both in taking the Club to professional status and the move to what we all know now as White Hart Lane.

Standing in the middle of the playing area of the stadium and Club his grandfather did so much for all those years ago, it was naturally an emotional moment for all three members of the Buckle family, particularly Michael, who was able to spend time with Bobby as a youngster before his grandfather passed away in 1959.

He said: "White Hart Lane is, I suspect, a bit of a special place for most (all?) Spurs fans. This is the pitch where we have been thrilled, excited, energised, not to mention exasperated, frustrated and downright irritated by our heroes playing on the hallowed turf!

"Anyone who has watched Spurs over the years will remember the great players and great memories created. For me it was Blanchflower, Mackay and White, through Jennings, Greaves, and Gilzean to King, Alderweireld, Alli and Kane. And then for me, especially walking onto the pitch last week, it was the realisation that grandad had actually played there too.

"I know he never played a competitive match on the ground, but he did play in the ‘Old Codgers’ games and the only photo that he kept after he left the Club in 1900 was of him and his 1900 Old Codgers team, in traditional pose on the pitch in front of the old tunnel. And here I am standing on the same pitch! That walk was very emotional."

Peter added: "It's wonderful to be here again. I've not been here since 1999 and it's changed so much over the years, I remember standing in the terraces in 1986-87, when I managed to see quite a few games, and now we have this new stadium being built, it's so impressive.

"It's awesome to know what my great-grandfather did for the Club and that has been passed down through the family. I was only 10 when I found out our family had such an attachment to Spurs. It's something we're all very proud of."