A scarf-wearing supporter seen from behind stands guard with a garden hose beside a giant skip piled with dark jackets outside a floodlit stadium.

Match ReportThe High Road Herald

Carrick Sack Called Unavoidable After Spurs Draw, So Supporter Stands Guard Over Skip With Garden Hose

Desmond Parry · Chief Football Correspondent10 October · Reading time: one pint

A match analysis piece says Michael Carrick's position at Manchester United is untenable after Spurs drew 1-1 at Old Trafford, and a supporter has been at the stadium skip since breakfast.

A Tottenham man has taken up position beside a skip outside the stadium with a garden hose, after a match analysis piece concluded that the 1-1 draw at Old Trafford was neither the water nor the petrol the occasion required.

The piece, which the Herald has read twice, describes the draw as the "anticlimactic grey area" and states that Michael Carrick's continued employment as Manchester United manager is unavoidably in doubt. It adds that it would not be surprising if either he or Roberto De Zerbi were removed within weeks.

The man has taken the second half of that sentence personally. He was at the skip by eight o'clock on a day on which no football is scheduled and the gates are closed.

The facts of the evening are not in dispute. Bryan Mbeumo scored, Rodrigo Bentancur was sent off, and Dominic Solanke equalised in stoppage time. Spurs now travel to face Coventry on Monday.

Somebody has to be on the water end. The article was quite clear. Nobody else has come.

Our correspondent asked which fire the skip represented. The man said the piece had been understood to mean both, and that he was ready for either. He indicated an empty watering can at his feet, which he described as the petrol side of the operation.

The piece also refers to "positive momentum" for Spurs, to be wasted against Coventry. The man has reserved Monday for the wasting and has asked passers-by not to rush it.

A member of stadium staff advised that the skip contains builders' rubble and has not been alight at any point.

The hose remains connected to an outside tap, with permission pending.

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A small supporter stands on a pitch confronting an oversized turnstile while two faceless players chase a ball behind it.

Player RatingsThe High Road Herald

Senesi And Gallagher Deserve To Be Ahead Says Spurs Web, So Supporter Queries Score With Turnstile

Maureen Tench · Player Ratings Editor10 October · Reading time: one pint

Spurs Web's half-time ratings against Manchester United gave Marcos Senesi and Conor Gallagher 8 each with the match goalless, and the stadium forecourt has since been attended by one man and one pigeon.

A Tottenham man has attended the outside of a closed stadium to raise the matter of the score, after Spurs Web published half-time ratings in which Marcos Senesi and Conor Gallagher were each given 8 and the match against Manchester United stood at 0-0.

The ratings, published at the interval, described the pair as deserving to be ahead. The Herald understands the man read deserve as an instruction.

He arrived at Turnstile Four with a stepladder and asked, in a level voice, for the difference to be applied. The turnstile did not respond. He asked again, slightly louder, and was met with the same.

Two eights. That's sixteen. They can't both be eight and nil. Somebody's holding it back.

Our correspondent worked through the eleven first-half marks and found they average roughly 6.9. The man accepted the figure but said an average takes no account of the two eights, whom he regards as having paid in.

He has also noted that Mohammed Kudus was rated 7.5, and has asked that the half point be held in trust until it is needed. He accepts that Senesi was in the side because Micky van de Ven was not fit to start, but describes this as an administrative matter.

A member of staff passing the gate confirmed that the half-time position is no longer current and that the forecourt is not where the score is kept. The man thanked him and stayed for a further ninety minutes.

He has been asked to move along and has asked in return for a mark out of ten.

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