I was lucky enough to be introduced to Tottenham Hotspurs as a toddler with the famous Double Winning side of Blanchflower, Smith and Mackay – followed by the legendary Jimmy Greaves.

I'd get the 123 bus from Walthamstow with my friend John Stamp and his Geordie dad, a Sunderland supporter.

However, as a vertically challenged youngster, I'd often struggle to see what was happening on the pitch as in those days we'd cram 65,000+ into the stadium, mostly standing, and I'd jump up and down after a goal because everyone else had, but I hadn't actually seen a thing.

So my dad, who preferred the gentler Ishmian League of Walthamstow Avenue FC, a stones throw from where we lived, came to my rescue.

He took an old 4 legged stool and cut it down to just 9" high, and I could take it into the stadium, plonk it down and stand on it. Suddenly I was as tall as all the grown-ups around me (well, nearly).

But there was another problem. The Flow.

We used to be absolutely jammed tight into the terraces and often there was a weird phenomenon when the crowd would sway around the steps like leaves in a wind.

In my pre-stool days I'd simply lift my feet off the floor (it was that tight!) wait until the Flow stopped and put my feet down again – often quite a way from where I started.

So, my ingenious dad attached a strap onto the top of the stool so that when I stood on it I could slip a foot under the strap – and when the Flow started my stool would follow me around. And when we stopped, I'd pop it down again.

Of course the tragedy of Hillsborough stopped that, but it does make you remember that the crowd record at White Hart Lane was an astonishing 75,038!

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From the 'never to be published' book, THE RAMBLINGS OF AN ORDINARY BLOKE and written as a short article for the Tottenham Hotspurs 125th Anniversary Book.