Fleet Spurs currently play in the Wessex League Division One in Hampshire and were originally set up in 1948 by soldiers who had returned from World War II - though there are no official links between them and the Premier League club, who have now legally requested that they drop their cockerel crest.

Bryan Sheppard, Fleet Spurs chairman, said:

"We haven’t got a penny to our name, we couldn’t afford to fight it. It’s been quite stressful, we just felt really intimidated by the heavy-handed approach, but I can see where they are coming from."

A spokesman for Tottenham made the club’s case too:

"If we do not take action to stop Fleet Spurs using our cockerel logo, it can undermine our ability to stop other unauthorised people who use our logo for commercial purposes, such as counterfeiters.

"We are very conscious that Fleet Spurs is a grass-roots club. For this reason we have been very careful not to ask them to do anything that might incur costs."

Apparently, Fleet Spurs have always featured the cockerel on their badge in homage to Tottenham, with the current design coming about as the result of a fan competition.

Chairman Sheppard has also insisted that the new design will also be drafted up by a supporter - although he admitted he would scrutinise the winning entry more carefully this time to avoid incurring the wrath of Tottenham again.