- Feb 1, 2005
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Part one can be read here
Three days after losing 2-1 away to Bruges in the UEFA Cup we played Stoke City at WHL, strolling to an easy 4-0 win with Graham Roberts, John Cheidozie and Clive Allen (2) scoring the goals. This put us back up to third in the table, three points behind Arsenal who were top and a point behind Everton. Four days later, on Halloween, we beat Liverpool in the League Cup, again at WHL, again by 1-0, this time Clive Allen scored the goal. Liverpool had won the competition for the previous FOUR seasons on the trot, which made the victory even sweeter.
Then we had a home game against WBA which we lost 3-2 and I’m sure you'll all know what I mean when I tell you that the performance was typical Tottenham. Arsenal had been beaten the day before and we let the chance to catch up slip although we hadn't lost more ground.
On 10th November, we travelled up the Motorway to Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest. What a dump. There was this great big Floodlight Pylon obscuring the view but we won 2-1, Hazard and Galvin getting the goals. At this game I heard the Charlie Nicholas song for the first time, which would probably get you slung out of the ground or arrested for homophobia these days. (So I won't reproduce the lyrics here). Anyway, the win meant we were in fourth place with 25 points, Everton had gone top with 29 points. Three days before the Forest game, we'd overturned the UEFA Cup first leg deficit against Bruges, running out winners by three goals to nil and Hazard got one with an amazing shot which looked like it had curled the 'wrong' way but still went in! (Type loKa0vfo90o into the search facility on Youtube for video of Graham Roberts piledriver in this match)
The middle of November saw us travelling to Ipswich Town, a game I remember not only because we won 3-0 but also for our using the same numbered ticket we found on the bar to claim three consecutive dinners in the packed out pub we had taken over. All the teams above us also won so it was as you were.
Seven days on and it was Chelsea at home, a crowd of only 31,000 watched us draw 1-1 with Mark Falco getting the goal and as usual, there was trouble outside the ground at the corner of Park Lane and the High Road. The point moved us up to second, 3pts behind Everton after 16 games. Next we travelled up to Highfield Road and secured another point in a 1-1 draw with Coventry City, Falco again scoring the goal. This time a point wasn't enough and we dropped down to fourth. This game saw a turning point in our Mini Bus fortunes when someone decided to take a dump by the back doors and the driver refused to take it back until the offending jobbie had been cleared out. The offender was in no state to do it having suffered an alcohol induced collapse and it was with the aid of a couple of sticks that we managed to remove the turds and continue our journey home. From that day on we had to hire transport from elsewhere.
We then had a League Cup replay at Sunderland to travel to on the 5th so given the short notice it was up on the rattler and a doss on the platform in London waiting for the paper train to get us back home after going out by 2-1. I think I got in about 6am.
Three days later on 8th December we entertained Newcastle United whose fans hadn't yet taken to removing their shirts in freezing cold weather to earn the title 'best fans in the world' although their tattoos were still riddled with spelling mistakes. We won 3-1, Mark Falco continued his scoring streak with a double to make it four in three games. Everton dropped point so we moved up to second, a point behind them. Then it was up the road to Watford who were managed at the time by Graham Taylor and were only a couple of points clear of the relegation zone. Do I not like that he was reported to have said.....We won 2-1, Falco scoring yet again, we stayed second as Everton had also got three points.
Christmas week started with a game away to mid-table Norwich on the 22nd December. We'd sorted out suitable transport, banned turdboy from travelling with us and were full of ourselves as we won again, by two goals to one thanks to goals from Tony Galvin and Garth Crooks and the party really swung into gear when news filtered through that we'd gone top of the league!.......:dance: Tottnum Tottnum, top of the league and we're gonna win the league were about the only songs sung during the whole journey home.......Talking of songs, 'Do they know it's Christmas' by Band Aid went straight into the charts at No1..........
What a Christmas present for Spurs fans, going top of the league with a home game against West Ham on Boxing Day. They've stopped doing it now of course, but back then, these 'high risk' or Cat A fixtures were played on Boxing day or New Years day and we turned up for this one rampant with expectation but the result wasn't what we wanted as we drew 2-2 thanks to goals from Mabbutt and Crooks in front of 37,000. The result was enough to keep us top thanks to our goal difference being better than Everton by four. Man Utd lurked in third two points behind with Arsenal in 4th on 36pts.
So there we were, top of the table at Christmas, unbeaten in eight league games and with a growing belief that we were actually going to do it this year. Our defence of the UEFA Cup was going well (Back then it was a straight knock out competition over two legs) and we had Real Madrid in Round 4, which IIRC was the QF stage and a home game against Charlton in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup to come.
Looking back, i'm surpised at some of the poor attendances but that was the trend at the time, I can't remember why so we'll put it down to Thatcher's Britain :razz:
More next time.................
Three days after losing 2-1 away to Bruges in the UEFA Cup we played Stoke City at WHL, strolling to an easy 4-0 win with Graham Roberts, John Cheidozie and Clive Allen (2) scoring the goals. This put us back up to third in the table, three points behind Arsenal who were top and a point behind Everton. Four days later, on Halloween, we beat Liverpool in the League Cup, again at WHL, again by 1-0, this time Clive Allen scored the goal. Liverpool had won the competition for the previous FOUR seasons on the trot, which made the victory even sweeter.
Then we had a home game against WBA which we lost 3-2 and I’m sure you'll all know what I mean when I tell you that the performance was typical Tottenham. Arsenal had been beaten the day before and we let the chance to catch up slip although we hadn't lost more ground.
On 10th November, we travelled up the Motorway to Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest. What a dump. There was this great big Floodlight Pylon obscuring the view but we won 2-1, Hazard and Galvin getting the goals. At this game I heard the Charlie Nicholas song for the first time, which would probably get you slung out of the ground or arrested for homophobia these days. (So I won't reproduce the lyrics here). Anyway, the win meant we were in fourth place with 25 points, Everton had gone top with 29 points. Three days before the Forest game, we'd overturned the UEFA Cup first leg deficit against Bruges, running out winners by three goals to nil and Hazard got one with an amazing shot which looked like it had curled the 'wrong' way but still went in! (Type loKa0vfo90o into the search facility on Youtube for video of Graham Roberts piledriver in this match)
The middle of November saw us travelling to Ipswich Town, a game I remember not only because we won 3-0 but also for our using the same numbered ticket we found on the bar to claim three consecutive dinners in the packed out pub we had taken over. All the teams above us also won so it was as you were.
Seven days on and it was Chelsea at home, a crowd of only 31,000 watched us draw 1-1 with Mark Falco getting the goal and as usual, there was trouble outside the ground at the corner of Park Lane and the High Road. The point moved us up to second, 3pts behind Everton after 16 games. Next we travelled up to Highfield Road and secured another point in a 1-1 draw with Coventry City, Falco again scoring the goal. This time a point wasn't enough and we dropped down to fourth. This game saw a turning point in our Mini Bus fortunes when someone decided to take a dump by the back doors and the driver refused to take it back until the offending jobbie had been cleared out. The offender was in no state to do it having suffered an alcohol induced collapse and it was with the aid of a couple of sticks that we managed to remove the turds and continue our journey home. From that day on we had to hire transport from elsewhere.
We then had a League Cup replay at Sunderland to travel to on the 5th so given the short notice it was up on the rattler and a doss on the platform in London waiting for the paper train to get us back home after going out by 2-1. I think I got in about 6am.
Three days later on 8th December we entertained Newcastle United whose fans hadn't yet taken to removing their shirts in freezing cold weather to earn the title 'best fans in the world' although their tattoos were still riddled with spelling mistakes. We won 3-1, Mark Falco continued his scoring streak with a double to make it four in three games. Everton dropped point so we moved up to second, a point behind them. Then it was up the road to Watford who were managed at the time by Graham Taylor and were only a couple of points clear of the relegation zone. Do I not like that he was reported to have said.....We won 2-1, Falco scoring yet again, we stayed second as Everton had also got three points.
Christmas week started with a game away to mid-table Norwich on the 22nd December. We'd sorted out suitable transport, banned turdboy from travelling with us and were full of ourselves as we won again, by two goals to one thanks to goals from Tony Galvin and Garth Crooks and the party really swung into gear when news filtered through that we'd gone top of the league!.......:dance: Tottnum Tottnum, top of the league and we're gonna win the league were about the only songs sung during the whole journey home.......Talking of songs, 'Do they know it's Christmas' by Band Aid went straight into the charts at No1..........
What a Christmas present for Spurs fans, going top of the league with a home game against West Ham on Boxing Day. They've stopped doing it now of course, but back then, these 'high risk' or Cat A fixtures were played on Boxing day or New Years day and we turned up for this one rampant with expectation but the result wasn't what we wanted as we drew 2-2 thanks to goals from Mabbutt and Crooks in front of 37,000. The result was enough to keep us top thanks to our goal difference being better than Everton by four. Man Utd lurked in third two points behind with Arsenal in 4th on 36pts.
So there we were, top of the table at Christmas, unbeaten in eight league games and with a growing belief that we were actually going to do it this year. Our defence of the UEFA Cup was going well (Back then it was a straight knock out competition over two legs) and we had Real Madrid in Round 4, which IIRC was the QF stage and a home game against Charlton in the 3rd Round of the FA Cup to come.
Looking back, i'm surpised at some of the poor attendances but that was the trend at the time, I can't remember why so we'll put it down to Thatcher's Britain :razz:
More next time.................
