Home is where the heart is

When I was growing up, in the 90s and early Noughties, we won nearly all our points at home. We relied heavily on our form at the Lane to keep our heads above water. While we rarely beat the big guns (or even put up much of a fight), we did have a good habit of beating the teams in and around us. White Hart Lane wasn't exactly a fortress, but it's where we'd get the majority of our wins and best performances. Away from home, meanwhile, we might pick up one or two wins in a season (three if you were lucky). Mad to think of that now, but that was the reality back then, when we were as flaky as anything on the road.

In recent years our away form has improved considerably, to the point where we've actually looked more comfortable on the road, suiting our counter-attacking, high-pressing game much better. It was at the Lane where we started to struggle a bit more against teams - teams set up to defend and counter-attack themselves.

Our home form under Poch, taken overall, has been decent. We struggled in his first season at the Lane, but we were better last year. Even then, his tenure has been punctuated by big home wins. I'm thinking the 5-3 over Chelsea, the 2-1 win against Arsenal, the 3-1 against City and the 3-0 against United.

But we were still inconsistent, we still lost games we shouldn't have been losing and drew games we shouldn't have been drawing.

This season, though, we have been picking up most of our points at home again. Four of our six wins this season have come at home. Our best performance of the campaign - the brilliant 2-0 win over City - came at home. The most exciting game of the season - the last-gasp 3-2 win over West Ham - came at home. Our current home record reads:

W4 D2 L0 GF9 GA4.

Although a big chunk of the ground is missing, and we've been playing our Champions League games at Wembley (more's the pity!), it still doesn't really feel like this is our last year at the Lane. As that reality nears, though, each game will start to matter that bit more. As we saw with West Ham last season, the final year at a beloved old ground can be a special one. Players, fans and the management will be determined to go out with a bang, especially in the really big games.

I think we're most likely to finish where we are now, but if any of the above four teams slip up (which they inevitably will at some point) we have to be ready to pounce. We're at our best when we fly under the radar. In recent seasons we've also tended to have our best run of form around this time, from December-ish to February. Our record over the festive period is outrageously good - hopefully that will continue.

What's more, we have Swansea up next, who we never, ever lose to. (Kiss of death, I know, but we have a hold over the Swans in the same way United, Arsenal and Chelsea did over us for many years). That 5-4 win was a cracker, but Mr Kane will be licking his lips at some of the defending on show from Swansea.

Last year we made rather hard work of it. 1-0 down for much of the game, two late, quickfire goals from Chadli and Rose won us the points. Let's hope for a more comfortable win this Saturday. COYS.