Peter Crouch can laugh now about the moment that gave him the motivation to succeed in professional football. But as a 13-year-old who had never been on the Tube alone, the day his dad forced him to make his own way home was a harsh and scary lesson.
The former England striker had been in action for Tottenham's youth side with his father, Bruce, watching keenly from the sidelines. Yet Crouch senior was so unimpressed by his son shirking a tackle during the match that he decided to leave and force him to make his own back to Ealing from north-east London.
When the game finished Crouch spent some time looking for his old man before the penny dropped and he realised that he would need to navigate his own route back across town.
