THE magic of the cup is a hackneyed phrase trotted out by those master purveyors of cliche, the football commentators. But at White Hart Lane in the fourth round of the cup, something special happened.

I’m a Spurs fan, so the result — a last-minute winner for our visitors — didn’t make me smile. Instead, I was warmed by the faces of various youngsters in the crowd.

Spurs, who have long been owned by a billionaire living in the Caribbean, and before that became the first English club to float on the stock exchange, have been run as a business where the profit margin is a key driver in decisions they make.

But for this game they charged children a fiver to get in, and £20 for adults. Normally tickets are twice, three times the price — and you could see the effect it had on the mix of people there.

White Hart Lane is in one of the poorest boroughs in London and its fan base is not predominantly from the housing estates and streets of the N17 area. 

The cheaper tickets put bums on seats and gave teenagers who have previously not been able to afford it the chance to see their local club play.

It was refreshing. At Spurs, as is the trend across the Premiership, the average age of season ticket holders has risen on a year-by-year basis. It used to be the domain of teens and people in their 20s, but as prices have gone up, younger people have been priced out. 

It has meant that football has slowly lost a core group of supporters, and has also led to a lack of atmosphere within grounds.

While Tottenham’s pricing should be applauded, it also simply highlighted how the people’s game is now nothing of the sort.

But there may be a glimmer of light on the horizon. As well as special games where ticket prices are reduced, there are plans afoot to fundamentally alter the stadium layout and if it is successful at Tottenham, expect other clubs to follow suit. The planned new stadium may reintroduce standing areas in the ground.

As the truth about the terrible events at Hillsborough football stadium finally emerges, it could be time for one of its many unpleasant legacies to be reviewed.

The report into the tragedy by Lord Justice Taylor did not get justice for the families of the Liverpool fans lost on that terrible day.

Taylor recommended removing the traditional terraces and replacing them with seats.

So stadiums in the top division became all-seater, and with it, the cost of going to football matches rocketed.

No longer could you turn up on the day and buy a ticket on the gate. You had to book in advance, often using a credit card — two barriers to swathes of fans.

Then the fact that the clubs saw their capacity significantly decline meant that prices went up, too.

It is arguable that the Taylor report was the blunt tool of a Thatcher government who had long found football crowds uncomfortable. 

Here was a large group of predominantly working-class people expressing themselves in a public arena, that gave them a platform to voice their anger at a society riddled with injustice.

As White Hart Lane gets redeveloped, fans’ forum the Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust, which has boardroom-level meetings with the club, has been lobbying to reintroduce standing. 

With architects working out how not to turn a 36,000 atmospheric cauldron of support into a 60,000 tepid bowl full of what Roy Keane eloquently called “the prawn sandwich brigade,” the club say it is something they will consider.

The plans draw on what happens in German Bundesliga grounds.

It works like this. Seats are on a fold-up system that can be bolted into place. The ground staff walk round the ground before kick-off and if it isn’t a European game, where standing is not allowed, they flip and lock the seats away. It means the clubs can let more people in at a lower cost. It leads to a better, and more mixed, atmosphere.

Spurs are talking about creating a kop-style terrace bank soaring behind one goal for home fans to sing on.

While this won’t solve the deep-rooted problems within the game, it could go some way to readjusting the errors made by the Thatcher government that are still being felt today. 

If it makes Tottenham accessible to the people who live in the shadow of the White Hart Lane ground, and doesn’t hit the balance sheets, expect clubs around the country to follow suit.