A final first for Spurs fan Annelise
It’s cup final number 12 for Annelise Jespersen on Sunday, with one major difference... she won’t be there.
Approaching 50 years as a Spurs fan, Annelise had no connection to the club or the area when she decided to devote her football-supporting life to Tottenham Hotspur in 1973. She was 10 at the time, an interest sparked by our appearance in the 1973 League Cup Final, a 1-0 win against Norwich City thanks to Ralph Coates' goal.
Growing up in Suffolk, she first watched Spurs at nearby Norwich in the md-1970s. She moved to London in 1982 and has been in the capital since, and running parallel to that, becoming a fixture at Spursl.
Annelise first went to Wembley with Spurs for the League Cup Final in 1982. Eleven cup finals later, she can reflect on being there for the greatest moments of our modern history – UEFA 84, Arsenal and Forest in 1991, League Cup 2008, and reaching the Champions League Final in 2019 – but her run will come to an end due to COVID restrictions when we step out against Manchester City in the Carabao Cup Final on Sunday.
It’s a double whammy, as well, as Annelise explains. “The thing about finals is we’ve always met for a champagne breakfast, a fantastic build up, and I almost remember those as much as the finals. It’s such a shame, but a lot of that is going to be lost this time around.
“It’s been a difficult year for everyone and what I’ve missed from football is not just the matches, but everything around it, meeting up with people, casual connections as well as long-standing friends, and that has affected people a lot.
“My friends have all said that we’re all watching matches on television on our own and it feels odd. Even if you’re in a WhatsApp group with people, it just feels weird. You are almost more anxious, and there is no-one to dissipate it with. If you are there with friends and we’ve lost, you go for a drink afterwards and get it out of your system. What I remember most from 1999 or 2008 are the celebrations with friends, so it’s going to be different this time around.”
Back in 1982, Annelise went to Wembley on her own as we lost the League Cup Final against Liverpool. “I travelled down from Suffolk for it,” recalled Annelise, a Season Ticket Holder of many years, and Trust member. “My mum came with me, she went sight-seeing and met me afterwards, so she probably had a better day than I did!
“I was well hooked by then, although in terms of watching, it was mainly television. I moved to London later that year, and I’ve been here ever since, all my adult life, I’m a Season Ticket Holder, and I’ve been to every final since then. I’ve blanked out a few, completely forgotten the Blackburn one (League Cup Final, 2002), but there have been so many special moments.
“The Arsenal semi-final in 1991 was amazing. That almost beats the final! The final, that was quite stressful. There was a sadness about Gazza coming off, but coming back in the second half, again, there was quite a lot going on around the club itself, and to win it felt so good. I remember a friend saying at half-time, ‘I can’t bear this’ and went and sat out in the concourse!
“The 2008 League Cup... I don’t know if it’s because it’s more recent, but that’s one of my best Spurs memories. To be able to see Ledley King lift a trophy for Spurs, after all he’d done for us, was special. 1984 as well, winning a trophy at White Hart Lane, the fans that night, that was an historic moment.”
Annelise’s first game at the Lane was in March, 1979, a 2-0 win against Derby County, Ossie Ardiles’ first goals in a Spurs shirt. “I stood in the North Stand, lower tier, I was with my brother, Ossie scored, I took my scarf off and waved it around my head, and felt it hit something. I turned around and there was a policeman picking his helmet up! He just laughed, thankfully. Seeing Ossie score his first goals, that was special.”
Yet, ironically, in a period where we’ve played in empty stadium since March, 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, Annelise’s first memory of White Hart Lane was exactly that – an empty stadium...
“A year before that Derby game, aged 14 or 15, my mum and I came to London for a day out, a normal, midweek day, and I asked if we could go to White Hart Lane,” she reflected. “We went into the Spurs shop and asked if there was any way we could look inside the stadium, saying ‘we’ve come all this way…’ and a member of the ground staff let us in! So, my first memory of White Hart Lane is midweek, no match and going to look inside the ground with my mum. That left a big impression.”