CURRY' S FOLLY

Alan Gowling wore headphones, held a microphone and was about to tell his listeners the team news.

Only the former Manchester United, Newcastle United and Bolton Wanderers forward was sitting in the wrong seat and the former Dynamo Haringey, Club Sandwich and Green Gate utility player was about to ask him to move.

Gowling agreed without fuss and with the suggestion that Tottenham Hotspur is home to the worst press box in the Premier League.

Everton and Portsmouth compete but the view at Goodison is fine and at Fratton Park they still have ticket price signs in pounds, shillings and pence so we are grateful for electricity.

If you are one of the 56 reporters crowbarred into 120 square foot of East Stand lower tier at White Hart Lane your Saturday afternoon will be an uncomfortable one.

Not only is it cramped but the tiny flip-up desks slope towards you. Broadcasters have to gaffa tape equipment and writers hold onto laptops.

Not only is it cramped with tiny, sloping desks but it is impossible to see over the crown of the pitch. Commentating is tricky. BBC radio were in the cabin to the rear of the seating area but the view was so poor they moved to the television gantry in the stand opposite.

Not only is it cramped with tiny, sloping desks and a restricted view but television monitors block the narrow gangway running down the middle. Getting in is difficult; getting out requires balance, sure feet and the eye for an opening.

Everybody blames Steve Curry.

When the East Stand was rebuilt in 1982 the press were housed in the upper tier but a few years later chairman Irving Scholar, who was desperate for cash, freed up the good seats for corporate clients and kicked the press downstairs.

Curry was the number one football reporter on the Daily Express and chairman of the Football Writers' Association at the time. Over lunch with Scholar Curry agreed to the move and to advise on the facilities. Or lack of.

A smile from the dinner ladies in the equally cramped press room, the hot food, the rewarding football (69 goals and only three draws in all comps), the terrific atmosphere and access to the managers post match never quite make up for three hours of neck craning, bladder holding minimal movement.

Tottenham plan to build a new stadium and the FWA have been consulted about press facilities and maybe broadcasters will also be asked to contribute.

The bad news is Tottenham’s new 58,000 seater stadium may be some way off. Spurs are also building a state of the art training ground at Bulls Cross in Enfield and need to spend on players to compete at home and abroad. In the deepest recession for 70 years something may have to give.

The good news is Steve Curry now runs a pub.