Fluctuating fortunes

A swagger, sorry, make that stagger, of inconsistency has plagued our season. Many a promising run of results has been halted with an inexplicable result, a heinous defensive error or a misfiring squaddie on the front line. Ultimately, it's thwarted our Champions League hopes but thankfully, our fluctuating fortunes know no prejudice and on Sunday we pulled off another unthinkable result.

One win in 13 games. That's not good. In fact, it's rubbish. Multiply that by the Anfield factor, where we hadn't won in 18 years, and by kick-off time I had all but given up on it.

Then, we pull off one of the results of our season - that's probably over playing it a bit but until yesterday we all thought our season was over. Redknapp didn't want the Europa League spot and we were all bracing ourselves for a lynch mob of money men to come for our prize assets. I even turned to my girlfriend just before kick-off to state, "I have never been so sure in my life that Spurs are going to lose a game."

Now, we're in a commanding position to qualify for Europe via the league for the fourth time in six seasons. I'm not going to make this one of those "everything's fine", Harry Redknapp-endorsed comments, we should have done better in the last three months, but we're where we are and, like I said last week, if we want regular success, we really should be in Europe.

Involvement in the Europa League will keep more members of the squad active, fit and happy, and get us used to juggling priorities during these long seasons - not to mention bringing in some prize money to keep the board, and the sponsors, sweet.

It's actually been a good season for breaking new ground and settling some old scores in the meantime. It's 25 years since we did the double over the Reds and, funnily enough, Kenny Dalglish was in charge the last time we did it back in 1986-87. We beat them 1-0 home and away, with Clive Allen scoring at Anfield in October and Chris Waddle back at White Hart Lane in March.

Clive Allen scored 49 goals in all competitions that season, a feat which remains unmatched to this day - we could have done with him up front this season. Well, we could have done with him up front any season. We could have done with anyone up front this season.

Rafa Van Der Vaart's goal on Sunday was great to watch, I know it deflected, but his reaction - instinctively grabbing the badge on his shirt and running to the Spurs fans - was great to see, and indicates he might not want to go anywhere. Much the same with Luka Modric, rumours are flying about if he'll be off in the summer, but he cared enough to take the penalty and if he thought he was in the shop window, then he needn't have put his reputation on the line.

If VDV and Modric stay put then we're half way to keeping morale high for another bash next season – all we need now is a good old-fashioned goalscorer... Clive Allen, anyone?