14th May 1981 - The Year of the Cockerel. 40 Years Ago.

[TheChosenOne]

As I type this it is just over an hour to the 40th anniversary of the oft spoken of 1981 FA Cup final replay.
.
I just watched the 9+ minutes on YouTube.. Still brings the goose bumps.
.


50K Spurs fans (probably more TBH) according to Mottie. Most of them like myself and my pals in the centre upper tier behind the goal where Ricky Villa dancing about before scoring the "FA Cup Goal of the 20th Century"
.
That Superman punch/save outside the penalty area by Milija Aleksic would have been a certain sending off these days for sure.
.
As I said elsewhere last week - It was my coming of age as a Tottenham fan, myself and my mates had been up and down the land watching our team throughout the 1970's with a couple of League Cups and a EUFA cup too but after the relegation year this was us back at the big table.
.
So many memories - most good - Some of my pals are not here anymore.
.
Might have to break out a rare couple of beers tomorrow evening.
.

 

[JW72]

As I type this it is just over an hour to the 40th anniversary of the oft spoken of 1981 FA Cup final replay.
.
I just watched the 9+ minutes on YouTube.. Still brings the goose bumps.
.


50K Spurs fans (probably more TBH) according to Mottie. Most of them like myself and my pals in the centre upper tier behind the goal where Ricky Villa dancing about before scoring the "FA Cup Goal of the 20th Century"
.
That Superman punch/save outside the penalty area by Milija Aleksic would have been a certain sending off these days for sure.
.
As I said elsewhere last week - It was my coming of age as a Tottenham fan, myself and my mates had been up and down the land watching our team throughout the 1970's with a couple of League Cups and a EUFA cup too but after the relegation year this was us back at the big table.
.
So many memories - most good - Some of my pals are not here anymore.
.
Might have to break out a rare couple of beers tomorrow evening.
.

And still, Ricky Villa....

Enthralled as an eight year old. Reason I’m a Spurs fan.

 

[camspur65]

Thanks for posting this. Conjures up such powerful emotions for me. I was there with my Grandfather and Father (who have both since passed away) - and it’s my happiest Spurs memory. I’ll raise a glass or three to them, and that particular Spurs team, tomorrow.

 

[nferno]

40 years on, one would have expected us to have just won the premier league and in the champions league final - certainly a more deserving candidate. These bastards should be yo-yo-big around the middle of the football league pyramid.

I wish I had glory-glory memories of Spurs ?

 

[DCSPUR64]

I watched the City 1981 final in Sydney Australia.
I enjoyed the highlights as much today as I did back then.
Thanks for posting.

 

[cliff jones]

I was at both games- history

when you get fans say Levy has done a brilliant job, compared to where we were, their memory and context doesn’t go back far enough

Spurs are on their way to Wembley ?

 

[nipponyid]

Most of them like myself and my pals in the centre upper tier behind the goal where Ricky Villa dancing about before scoring the "FA Cup Goal of the 20th Century"

I must have been behind you TCO, I was up at the top....All you could hear amongst the noise..Was SHOOT...SHOOT....SHOOT!!! as ricky got in the box...Then fucking mayhem!! bodies flying about, hugging, kissing whoever was in your way..I got a bit scared at one point as i was tumbling down the terrace, to finally arrive at the wall seperating the lower & upper tiers!, with my back against the wall, looking up at all the fans rejoicing is a memory i'll never forget! Lost my glasses and my hat, but not my incredible joy i felt right then! All my mates got separated, but managed to hook up in the concourse after the game...We'd come on a open top bus that picked us up in camden, with somers town & southgate lads..and after everyone was on board headed back to a pub off the New North Road, who's landlord was big Spurs and had laid on a buffet and party! What a night, dancing and singing to Ossie's song into the early morning!! unforgettable!
This and '84 uefa cup have been my most enjoyable times, supporting spurs!
Cheers TCO, bringing up an outstanding day and so many amazing memories!!

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

Looking back, the late 70's and early to mid 80's, I guess up until Heysel were a bit of a golden era for English football on the pitch.

Seven European Cup wins in eight years, a Cup Winners Cup and three UEFA cups, a dominance that was only broken by Heysel and being banned from Europe. Even fucking Aberdeen won a CWC It's a pity the England team was so utterly shite, but the Home Internationals at the end of every season was always good.

Sigh. Those were the days. Proper football. Or football when it was proper.

The 1981 Final Replay and actually, the Semi-Final replay at Highbury remain two of my favourite games I ever went to. Great games which also had great goals.........Obviously there are others, the UEFA Cup Final is in there too but 1981 was a fantastic year for so many reasons. What a team we had back then.

Watching that clip, what a game, Mackenzie scored a stunning goal which gets forgotten, Caton's handball would have been a penalty today, Galvin was such a strong runner, Hoddle's ball for the second goal, so many things, watching Villas goal gave me goosebumps.

Thanks for posting this up Kev

 

[EastLondonYid]

Bunked off school all day for the game, it was a Thursday I think.

Brilliant weather, really warm night and yes we had over 50k fans around the stadium.
I couldn't get tickets for the Saturday final so was praying for a reply, my first ever final.

And my favourite song round by round was ''when Steve goes up''....so when crooksy equalised I actually started that song at 2-2 as I stood behind that goal.I probably went more crazy for the equaliser than the Rickys goal because at 2-1 down I remember thinking we had lost and had tears of relief when we scored.

Still my favourite game of all time.

 

[ohtottenham!]

Nice one, @TheChosenOne. I was same section as you, a bit lower down than you from your description. What a fucking night…morning! I’ve talked about my own experiences that night before, and some of the posts here bring it all back.

Crooks goal was the one when the real madness happened. Just release, relief and euphoria; I lost and reclaimed a shoe in between the Crooks and Villa goal. Also lost my voice for a couple of days after ‘cause I sung/shouted myself hoarse.

Perfect night!

 

[Gassin's finest]

Ahh... There used to be a football club over there once.

 

[daveduvet]

As I type this it is just over an hour to the 40th anniversary of the oft spoken of 1981 FA Cup final replay.
.
I just watched the 9+ minutes on YouTube.. Still brings the goose bumps.
.


50K Spurs fans (probably more TBH) according to Mottie. Most of them like myself and my pals in the centre upper tier behind the goal where Ricky Villa dancing about before scoring the "FA Cup Goal of the 20th Century"
.
That Superman punch/save outside the penalty area by Milija Aleksic would have been a certain sending off these days for sure.
.
As I said elsewhere last week - It was my coming of age as a Tottenham fan, myself and my mates had been up and down the land watching our team throughout the 1970's with a couple of League Cups and a EUFA cup too but after the relegation year this was us back at the big table.
.
So many memories - most good - Some of my pals are not here anymore.
.
Might have to break out a rare couple of beers tomorrow evening.
.

Awesome....

 

[Metalhead]

Some amazing and really graphic memories. I have posted this before and I'm sure that many will have seen it but for all those that haven't:

 

[Gassin's finest]

A decade on, and while Hoddle and '87 first caught my imagination for Spurs, it wasn't until a certain Paul Gascoigne at Italia 90, and then moving back to the UK, that my love for this club was sealed. That was the season that 11 year old me went completely footy... and Spurs... mad.

Gazza, Lineker, 3rd place and the FA Cup. Put the kettle on, sit back, and enjoy:



Edit: Apologies, I thought this was the Memory Lane thread. Didn't mean to derail.

 

[Metalhead]

A decade on, and while Hoddle and '87 first caught my imagination for Spurs, it wasn't until a certain Paul Gascoigne at Italia 90, and then moving back to the UK, that my love for this club was sealed. That was the season that 11 year old me went completely footy... and Spurs... mad.

Gazza, Lineker, 3rd place and the FA Cup. Put the kettle on, sit back, and enjoy:

Pretty much the same for me. The first game I can remember was Spurs v Liverpool in the 89/90 season when Gazza provided the assist for a Paul Stewart header for a 1-0 win, which obviously was a very decent result at the time. Funny to think that it would be more than 2 decades until we reached the dizzy heights of a top 3 finish again and obviously we didn't benefit from a UEFA cup place because of the Heysel ban.

 

[ralphs bald spot]

Always remember queing up for tickets for the replay on the Saturday night after the first game the queue went all the way down from the corner of Worcester Avenue (Paxton end) down turned right down Park Lane and ended down by the North (Bill Nick in new money) we had a few beers in the Park Hotel (now a Spurs shop) and joined the queue in the early hours of Saturnday morning and were up by the Milford Tavern (not there no more)

Saw every game in the cup run we quite lucky at QPR didin't play well at all. Was up at Hillsborough (always remember an old girl waving of the coaches and handing out sweets asking us to bring the Cup back which seems strange now but I will always remember that) for the Wolves game what happened to the Liverpool supporters could so easily have happened to us we had seats but my mate broke his arm as the coppers penned us in with Police horses charging at us they were barstewards that day they wanted a row causing aggravation in pubs with their heavy handed stupidity (football has changed for the better in that way it was open season on football supporters in those day and the police knew it and often abused it)

Another memory I lived in Tottenham was that all the shops and a lot of the houses were all done up in colours for the cup - The WhItehall Estatate just over the road fom the ground the lowere flats as you go towards White Hart Lane station had bunting and balloons everywhere the Cup back then was really a peoples event

It was a Thursday night went there in a mates car the North Circ was full of Spurs supporters and you hardly saw a City fan all night I would have said it was about 80/20 in our favour. The game I've seen it many times remember getting back to Tottenham and they had the cup out at the top of the old ticket office (shame we never had camera phones).

The other memorable thing is that Tottenham was like a matach day for the next few days the pubs were packed on the Friday lunchtime and all through to the Sunday when the parade was done

 

[fingersinc]

Was there and remember it like it was yesterday. Hoddle gets even better as time passes. For me I think the semi final replay would just pip this, for the atmosphere, class finishing and the fact that we were literally playing at home.

 

[EastLondonYid]

Always remember queing up for tickets for the replay on the Saturday night after the first game the queue went all the way down from the corner of Worcester Avenue (Paxton end) down turned right down Park Lane and ended down by the North (Bill Nick in new money) we had a few beers in the Park Hotel (now a Spurs shop) and joined the queue in the early hours of Saturnday morning and were up by the Milford Tavern (not there no more)

Saw every game in the cup run we quite lucky at QPR didin't play well at all. Was up at Hillsborough (always remember an old girl waving of the coaches and handing out sweets asking us to bring the Cup back which seems strange now but I will always remember that) for the Wolves game what happened to the Liverpool supporters could so easily have happened to us we had seats but my mate broke his arm as the coppers penned us in with Police horses charging at us they were barstewards that day they wanted a row causing aggravation in pubs with their heavy handed stupidity (football has changed for the better in that way it was open season on football supporters in those day and the police knew it and often abused it)

Another memory I lived in Tottenham was that all the shops and a lot of the houses were all done up in colours for the cup - The WhItehall Estatate just over the road fom the ground the lowere flats as you go towards White Hart Lane station had bunting and balloons everywhere the Cup back then was really a peoples event

It was a Thursday night went there in a mates car the North Circ was full of Spurs supporters and you hardly saw a City fan all night I would have said it was about 80/20 in our favour. The game I've seen it many times remember getting back to Tottenham and they had the cup out at the top of the old ticket office (shame we never had camera phones).

The other memorable thing is that Tottenham was like a matach day for the next few days the pubs were packed on the Friday lunchtime and all through to the Sunday when the parade was done

Really great post, summed up those days and the cup run.

One thing of note though..... I'm glad there weren't any camera phones in those days, I find fans today lose alot of celebration by their obsession to film the moment rather than actually feel it and let themselves go in the moment.

 

[mmidgers]

Some amazing and really graphic memories. I have posted this before and I'm sure that many will have seen it but for all those that haven't:

Cheers for posting that. Was a really good watch. Seems a lot of the gripes we've got now about the club being only in it for the money were a big concern back then too.

 

[mumfordspur]

I was in Texas at the time and on the way back there was an English guy at check-in who asked if we wanted to know the result.

It is this sort of thing that gets my hackles up when some joker posts "I remember the 90s/We don't want to do a Leeds"

I remember us winning things