Column Urges Spurs To Build Home Fortress Before Coventry, So Supporter Fills Washing-Up Bowl Moat

A Tottenham man has taken the word fortress at face value and is, at the time of going to press, defending the stadium forecourt with a plastic washing-up bowl.

The column, published on Sunday, argues that one of Tottenham's biggest problems could be psychological rather than tactical, and that the stadium must become a fortress, beginning on Monday against Coventry. It recalls the final season at White Hart Lane, when Mauricio Pochettino's side won 17 and drew two of their 19 Premier League home matches.

The man read it twice at a bus stop, once more aloud, and then went to the shed.

It says fortress. A fortress has a moat. I'm not saying it's the only thing, I'm saying it's the first thing.

The moat measures roughly thirty centimetres across and holds four litres, carried from a kitchen tap in a series of trips. The drawbridge is a chopping board, raised and lowered by garden twine, and has so far admitted one pigeon and a man collecting for the bins.

The column makes no reference to water, masonry or ironmongery. It refers instead to intensity, resilience and courage on the ball, none of which the man was able to source before Monday.

Our correspondent put it to him that the piece states a home fortress is not built through architecture alone. The man said he had read that part and considered it covered, as he had also brought a flask.

At the time of writing the washing-up bowl remained fully intact, with the chopping board in the raised position.

He has asked that both be left where they are until Monday.