So, back on the road (ok, rails) with Middlesbrough once again, this time to White Hart Lane. I must admit I wasn't very confident about this - Tottenham defending their 100% home record, and Boro hoping to add to their solitary away point.

I spent a few years livinq in London, and I loved the transport system - the quick, reasonably cheap tube can get you anywhere. Except Tottenham, it seems. That said, I'm sure the journey is getting quicker, and in no time at all, 'The Lane' was visible out of the train window - quite odd to see all the roof supports rising up out of the high rise flats!

I don't know if Spurs bother with a training ground, or just get the players to run up the stairs to the upper away section, from time to time, it's a lot of steps to climb, but once you're up, what a view! Incredible, but not for the faint hearted or those with Vertigo - it's very steep, but I suppose Spurs fans must be the fittest in the Premiership!

The inside of the Lane looks a little lop-sided, with the East stand in need of some renovation work, and special mention has to go to the police's observation post, which seems to have been inspired by the film 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'. Finally, the coffee, it has to be said, is both cheaper and nicer at Highbury. Sorry, Spurs fans.

There is a degree of animosity between Boro and Spurs fans, as Spurs ended up with Christian Ziege (or, as one young fan had on his shirt, Zeige - as you can maybe guess, that made my afternoon (up until that point, anyway)), so things started to get better when Ziege hobbled off injured after 20 minutes, to shouts of 'Judas' and 'I hope it's nothing trivial'!

On the pitch, the first half turned into another Middlesbrough masterclass of 'How to create an hatful of chances and still only go in 1-0 up at half time'. Fortunately, Spurs couldn't have scored if Mark Schwarzer hadn't turned up, despite their new 'goal-hero', Robbie Keane (interesting aside - I've seen Keane play 3 times. Goals scored - 0. Crap performances - 3). Second half picked up, with Geremi scoring after taking what seemed like an eternity to pick his spot, and Job making it three (leading to another rendition of our current favourite chant - 'There's only one Job on Teesside!'). Just as we thought the afternoon couldn't get better, we were proved wrong as news came through that results had gone our way to put us 3rd in the Premiership - Champion's League, here we come!