Tottenham Hotspur might not be a club necessarily blessed with an abundance of natural leaders, but in Michael Dawson, supporters at least have one figure they can count upon when the chips are down.

Quite how downcast the mood is within N17 is of course open to discussion, but following the central defender’s rallying call to fans this week, you get the idea that after the side’s dispiriting wobble which saw them drop out the top four for the first time since December last weekend, Dawson’s sentiments were very well timed indeed.

Speaking to Sky Sports News, the 29-year-old reassured fans that no one in the squad was contemplating a failure to finish within the top-four.

"We're not thinking of that," he said this week.

"As players you can't. Who knows what will happen on 19th May? Hopefully it will be a good day and we're celebrating. There's a lot of hard work to go in from ourselves and also the other teams to get there.

But while his positive reflections will sit well with supporters, it was his call to the White Hart Lane faithful to raise the volume level against Manchester City this Sunday, that felt particularly poignant.

“There is no better place than White Hart Lane when it's rocking and that support can make such a difference," the former Nottingham Forest man continued.

"When the players are performing and the fans are behind us, they are our 12th man, just like they were recently against Arsenal. We'd all love a repeat of that.”

On face value, there’s nothing within Dawson’s cries for an added vocal presence in N17 that particularly resonates as out of the ordinary. Calls for solidarity and a collective grouping together when clubs’ backs are against the wall is nothing new and if such a thing as a skipper’s handbook existed, you imagine the previous sentiment would feature somewhere towards the front.

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Yet after a season that has seen White Hart Lane draped in a blanket of tension and a mire of skepticism - perhaps thanks in no small part to the side’s difficulty in finding a rhythm when playing in front of the home crowd - the debate upon the atmosphere is more a topical point of conversation, as opposed to a small flash in the pan.

And following Clint Dempsey’s recent suggestions that the unease emitted from the home support might be beginning to have a detrimental effect upon the first team, Dawson’s recent comments might hold a little more weight than simply a series of throwaway remarks.

This isn’t to say that the England man has wheeled out something of a coded jibe to a set of fans in which he is thought very highly of indeed, but following a 2-2 draw with Everton played out in front of a backdrop of frustration and jangling nerves, there might have been more to Dawson’s comments than initially met the eye.

And although sensitivity must always be harnessed when approaching the subject of dwindling atmosphere with supporters, with so much on the line for Spurs this season, it’s perhaps imperative that the subject has been given an added spot of prominence over the last ten days.

Frustrations with the noise levels at White Hart Lane have been bubbling under the surface for a while now. Some have attributed a harder-line approach from stewards to standing at games – an obvious flouting of the regulations but commonplace across the more vocally prominent stands in the Premier League – while others have looked towards the jagged and awkward performances that Villas-Boas’ side have served up in North London.

But although both of the aforementioned have played a part, the patented vivacity and energy of the White Hart Lane crowd just hasn’t been there for large parts of this campaign and it’s something which has to change over the last handful of games this season.

As Dawson mentioned, we know that this home crowd is still capable of carrying their team over the line, as they did almost single-handedly during the 2-1 over Arsenal earlier on this year and although a north London derby can of course be classified as a one-off, the fixtures against Manchester United and West Ham drew a similar level of passion out of the paying public in N17.

And moving forward, that’s what the Tottenham support simply have to try and replicate during their remaining home clashes with City, Southampton and Sunderland on the last day of the season.

The likelihood is, it’s going to be tough, it’s going to be scrappy and it might not necessarily be pleasant. But now’s not the time to start yearning for anything approaching box office football.

Spurs have to get over the line one way or another, but the chorus of moans, groans and general feeling of discontent that felt palpable at times during the Everton game isn’t likely to help anyone. Be it the genteel smattering of boos that greeted Emmanuel Adebayor’s name on the line-up or the general feeling of disdain that Clint Dempsey seems to have attracted, regardless of how much supporters may believe it’s affecting the first team, it’s certainly not having a positive effect.

It’s time to lay the arms down, take a deep breath and put the frustration on the backburner in N17, at least until the end of the season. Tottenham need their 12th man back and they’d be no better time to return than against Manchester City this weekend.