Football, family and raising funds – the story of South East Thames Spurs

Football and family - it’s the heartbeat of South East Thames Spurs.

Set up by founder/treasurer Stephen Button after a legends' night to raise funds in the memory of his mother in 2017, our Official Supporters’ Club based out of Dartford has been a force for good ever since.

Steve explained: “Even from school days, I knew there were quite a few Spurs fans around this area. Most kids of that era supported Liverpool, because they won everything. There were a lot of us Spurs fans around, but no-one had brought it all together.

“My first game was in 1982/83. As fans, we’d always nod to each other on the train, say ‘hello’ from a distance or have a pint, but it never spiralled into anything more than that.”

It all came together in 2017... “If I’m honest, I carried a little bit of guilt when I lost my mum to Motor Neurone Disease in 2012,” Steve continued. “I’d seen friends who had lost family and they’d always done a charity event to raise money.

“I thought ‘what can I do to combine the two?’ - charity and Spurs - and I’d been to a legends’ night around that time, so I thought I’d do one locally and see what we could do with it.

“On the night, we raised around £1,500 for my mum’s charity and that’s now up to £4,000. After that, we got our supporters’ club going, we’ve a core membership now of 60, 70 regulars and another 50, 60 loosely attached. Our last night before the lockdown in March was with Chris Waddle and we sold out 195 tickets.

“The legends’ nights have raised funds for charities such as Motor Neurone Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Kent Autism, Muscular Dystrophy, Ellenor Foundation and Kent Air Ambulance. We’ve raised around £8,000 in two years, and many of the charities we’ve raised money for have been specifically requested by our members for personal reasons.

“In my local development, say in a square mile, there are 20 or 30 people who I didn’t know and are now part of our supporters’ club, part of that family. I got into contact with a member, James, who had been to a few of our nights, and one of my friends told me he was suffering from stage four bowel cancer. We managed to raise about £1,200 for him and he’s now started his chemotherapy. A lot of us didn’t know him - but he’s Spurs, and that’s it. We look after our own.”

It all started for Steve in the early 1980s. “For me, it stemmed from watching the likes of Hoddle, Ardiles, Hazard, something about the style, that little bit of class, little bit of swagger,” he said. “That just grabbed me.

“My dad was what I call an ‘armchair Arsenal fan’ because he worked at Royal Arsenal, again, from the Woolwich area, working at Royal Arsenal, everyone has a loose connection with Arsenal. However, my dad wasn’t a massive fan.

“I badgered my dad to take me and, in the end, it was an FA Cup game against Southampton, a 1-0 win (8 January, 1983, Micky Hazard on target).

“I’ll always remember sitting in the wooden seats in the Paxton, on the corner of The Shelf. I can still smell those wooden seats, the smell of cigars in the stand and my feet not touching the floor as we went along with the crowd on the way out. That’s it, you’re hooked.”

Steve gave a shout-out to the work of Keith Lewer (chairman), Denise Knight (secretary), John King and Grant Smith (committee members).