Jamie Weir: "My first Spurs game was 24 years ago, I remember it like it was yesterday"

Jamie Weir happily admits he doesn’t know why he became a Spurs fan - but his love for the Club was cemented forever as he took in the sights and sounds of a matchday at White Hart Lane for the first time, 24 years ago yesterday.

Born and raised in Northern Ireland, the Sky Sports News reporter and presenter remembers vividly that first trip with his father to London, taking the tube to Seven Sisters and that famous walk to the stadium, together with all the fans, and alongside them the hustle and bustle of a huge London derby in N17.

The opponents that day? Yes, you’ve guessed it, Chelsea, who we take on next at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday (8pm).

So much has changed in those 24 years, but as all fans know, you never forget that first experience.

“It was against Chelsea, 1st February, 1997, the day after my 14th birthday,” reflected Jamie. “It was a 2-1 defeat, unfortunately, at White Hart Lane. I remember David Howells scored the goal for us.

“That was my first time in London, full stop! You’ve got to remember, this is a wee boy from Belfast. It was my first trip over to London, the ‘Big Smoke’. Me and my dad jumped off the plane at Heathrow, got the Piccadilly Line into Leicester Square, had lunch there, then jumped on the tube to Seven Sisters.

“The walk from Seven Sisters to White Hart Lane felt like 20 miles! Then walking into 36,000 at White Hart Lane, it just took my breath away. I’d only ever been in stadiums that hold about 5,000 people! I remember tugging my dad’s coat and saying, ‘this is unreal’.

“I remember where I was sitting, West Upper, but unfortunately that was right in the period where we always seemed to lose to Chelsea as well, so I didn’t choose a great first game, but I remember it like it was yesterday.”

Jamie says his earliest Spurs memory is the 1991 FA Cup Final ‘wearing a Spurs shirt’. “If that was bought for me by an uncle who was a Spurs fan, I don’t know,” he explained. “I genuinely don’t know the reason I’m a Spurs fan. Growing up in Northern Ireland, you are either a Liverpool or Manchester United fan, especially 80s or 90s. So, I don’t have a clue. If I got a pound for every time I’m asked why I’m a Spurs fan! I just don’t have an answer.

“My mum and my sister are both Chelsea fans, my two little girls were also born 500 yards from Stamford Bridge, so, unfortunately, there is a Chelsea connection in my family! For me, it’s always been Spurs. I’m flying the flag and my two girls, they’ll probably get raised as Spurs fans as well!

“I remember the 1991 final so clearly, then Ossie’s team, the ’famous five’, I loved Jurgen Klinsmann, and the tactics of ‘you score three, we’ll score four’, which is exactly what we did first at Sheffield Wednesday on the first game of that season! I loved that team. Then Teddy... it’s always been the lads up front. Les Ferdinand, who I got to play golf with last year, and I was seriously star struck. It took me until the 16th hole to finally say, ‘by the way, you were one of my heroes as a kid’. I had ‘Ferdinand 9’ on the back all of my Spurs shirts. That became Berbatov and Keane, and then I became a journalist.”

Jamie has been a fixture at Sky Sports for over a decade now. He started life as a journalist at the Press Association (PA), moved to Setanta Sports and then Sky.

“I’ve been a sports journalist for 12 years, and I still get... internally, I’m jumping up and down whenever Spurs score a goal, or when Ireland win a rugby match against England. It still elicits those emotions for me. They just put you through the ringer, don’t they?”

Follow Jamie on Twitter - @jamiecweir