I toyed with a few memories...some great, one a bit sad, one involving me hanging around outside some men's toilets to shake Gary Lineker's hand! In the end I went for a sweet story, something that’s a football memory combined with a dog-lover’s memory.
I was lucky enough to go to the 2009 Carling Cup Final at Wembley. It was my silver jubilee of being a Spurs fan. Sadly, we lost...however, the year before we had won it and that was a match I had watched at home with Spurs-loving family and friends. And that’s my memory for you.
We were very sad at the disgraceful way Martin Jol had been ousted earlier and, as he had started this campaign, we wanted the win for him as well (I was at the match against Getafe, after which his sacking was announced. The crowd already knew, though, and he was applauded off the pitch with a standing ovation).
In January we had got a puppy. By match day in February he was very small, only 3 months old, and my son had named him Woody.
So, back to the match. We went down a goal – Drogba scored for Chelsea just before half time. A bit annoying but plenty of time left, hey? I thought we played really well in the first half so I was optimistic. But Chelsea defended that goal really well in the 2nd half. And then....we got a penalty. Berbatov scored; we all went mental. However, we hadn’t anticipated the poor puppy going berserk at all the noise. He’d never heard people shouting and screaming like that. I have no idea what he thought was going on but he was barking, jumping up and down and very upset and confused so we had to cut the celebrations short to pacify him. Still, we were back in the game. So, the match went to full time and still it was 1-1. Extra time. Naturally, we all wanted to win it outright before it got to penalties. So, when Jonathon Woodgate headed the ball in after four minutes, of course the place erupted again. We were ecstatic, noisy, the party had already started.....and poor Woody was beside himself again at all the shouting. I don’t know if it was a commentator or someone in the room but someone said, ‘Woody scored’ and so we picked him up and started singing, ‘Woody scored a goal’ at him. It didn’t have an immediate pacifying effect but I think he felt a bit more included, hearing us sing his name and cuddle him instead of screaming at each other! And of course, we won.
To this day, he hates me watching football in the house. I’m someone who talks and shouts at the TV during matches so as soon as there’s any slight agitation in my voice, he ‘shouts’ at me and then clears off to the bedroom for some peace and quiet.
Tracie Young
Tracie responded to an ad placed in Smash Hits by Paul Weller who was starting up a record label, suitably impressed by her demo she was invited to audition by Weller and he signed her to the Respond label. Before releasing anything as a solo artist Tracie sand backing vocals on The Jam's final single Beat Surrender which was their fourth number one and appeared on Top Of The Pops with the band, she also provided vocals for the first Style Council single Speak Like A Child and appeared in the promo video and toured as a member of the band in 1983.
Tracie toured as part of the Respond label package tour and had hits with The House That Jack Built and Give It Some Emotion and released an album Far From The Hurting Kind in 1984 which was reissued in 2010 for the first time on CD and be ordered by clicking here
Tracie is a radio presenter.
Follow Tracie on Twitter @atracieyoung
Memory added on April 28, 2013
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