Chalk, Cheese and the Giant Redwood
The City game was a tale of two halves: pathetic to dynamic, chalk to cheese. Was the formation shift down to Thomas Frank’s genius or forced by injury?
We break down the "moral courage" of Xavi Simons, praise 'man possessed' Palhinha and a veteran-style shift from Archie Gray, and look into the "Giant Redwood" that is Flappy in goal.
Inside this episode:
The Solanke Saviour: Even an atheist can thank God for that goal.
The 75-Minute Walkout: Principled protest or utter nonsense?
Twitter Jury: We shred the week’s most idiotic tweets
Room 101: Binning off "we go again" and other footballing sins.
Stat or Fiction: Did VDV really drive home in his kit before the final whistle?
Man Utd Preview: Which Spurs will show up—the Chalk or the Cheese?
Strap in. We go again.
Host
Simon is a former solicitor who saw the light and got the hell out of law before it broke him. He started a career as a stand-up comedian and impressionist in 1993, becoming a regular at The Comedy Store, Jongleurs and all major - and a few minor - comedy clubs around the UK and abroad. He has appeared on countless BBC Radio shows including Dead Ringers, Week Ending, Loose Ends and The Game's Up (lead impressionist) and also had his own Radio 4 sketch comedy show, Fordham & Lipson. His TV appearances have included Celebrity Squares, The Stand Up Show and Talking Telephone Numbers.
He created and hosted the popular Making An Impression podcast, interviewing top impressionists from the UK, Ireland and the USA including Rory Bremner, Jon Culshaw, Alistaie McGowan, Al Foran, Christina Bianco and Jim Meskimen. He was also the creator and host of The VARside Spurs podcast, before setting up Nice One Cyril in August 2025, which he continues to host.
Simon works as a professional voiceover artist.
Julie Welch is a legendary sports journalist, author and screenwriter who in 1973 became Fleet Street's first female football reporter. As a screenwriter she writes both screenplays and scripts for television, while as an author she has written both fiction and non-fiction. Some of her most notable works include the 1983 made-for-television film Those Glory Glory Days, which was inspired by her childhood love of football, and the books The Fleet Street Girls, the story of her experiences as a football reporter, Too Marvellous For Words, which describes her education at an all-girl boarding school, Felixstowe College, in the 1960s, the best-selling The Biography of Tottenham Hotspurand The Ghost of White Hart Lane (with Rob White).
Julie joins us every week on Nice One Cyril
Kev Acott is a grumpy, eternally optimistic writer, photographer, health inspector, university lecturer and therapist who wishes he didn’t have to support Tottenham and is haunted by the fact they haven’t won the league in his lifetime. His father was a Charlton fan who made the twin mistakes of moving to Enfield and not insisting his son follow his lead in supporting a less-traumatising team.
He is a music reviewer and biographer, has had several short stories, articles and poems published and is currently working on a second novel, in which key scenes include a drunken fight at the 1921 FA Cup Final and Jayne Mansfield’s visit to White Hart Lane in 1959. His favourite all-time player is Graham Roberts.
Recently retired, Chris is a THFC masochist, originally from North London, now living in the wilds of North Cornwall. Having worked, at arm’s length, for a F1 team he has (finally) left behind a career in personal finance and occasionally sashays forth – wind and rain permitting - to White Hart Lane, to see the famous white-clad stiffs.
This is, of course, a life sentence, and he is joined in this odyssey by other Kernow-based unfortunates, together forming a loose Band of Brothers, all seemingly unconnected yet with similar masochistic tendencies, and low expectations.
Being Spurs, he’s naturally pessimistic, yet has the common trait of unrealistic optimistic overtones, and is totally bemused by his occasional inclusions on the Nice One Cyril podcast, where his ramblings and odd comments appear to be somewhat tolerated.