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Full Cup Record of Spurs -v- Watford
(with thanks to Brian Judson, who did some of the research for this item)
FA Cup ties
1894-95 1Q H 3-2 Hunter Goodall 2 *Watford as West Herts
1921-22 2 H 1-0 Bliss
1938-39 3 H 7-1 Miller 2 GW Hall 2 Duncan Sargent Ward
1986-87 SF VP 4-1 C Allen P Allen Hodge 2
1998-99 3 H 5-2 Iversen (2), Anderton (pen), Nielsen, Fox
FL Cup ties
75-76 2 A 1-0 Chris Jones
94-95 2/1 A 6-3 Klinsmann 3 Anderton Dumitrescu
Sheringham
2/2 H 2-3 Barmby Klinsmann
The last time we met Watford in Cup competition was on 2nd January, 1999, when Spurs overcame an early scare, and ran out 5-2 winners over a Watford side being managed for the second time by Graham Taylor. At the time, Watford were promotion hopefuls, and indeed did win their way to the Premiership through the end of season play-offs. It was a one year stay though, as they also had two years ago. In both their Premier League seasons, The Hornets finished bottom.
Funnily enough that game in January, 1999 followed a league match against Everton. That was when Spurs did beat The Toffees every time! The full Watford report can be followed via the link above, but there were two ex-Spurs on the Watford bench. Goalkeeper Chris Day, who now plays for Blue Square Conference Premier Stevenage, and Ronnie Rosenthal. The Spurs team of course included a centre half whose name we don't mention, Stephen Carr, who has just retired, and other elements of the Carling Cup winnjing side, including legend David Ginola, soon to be honoured in the Spurs Hall of Fame.
Tottenham's first ever cup tie in the FA Cup, which took place even before Spurs had
joined the Southern League, was against one of Watford's predecessor
sides. The club was originally founded as Watford Rovers, in 1881, the
year before Tottenham. They changed their name to West Herts in 1893 and
did not adopt their present name until 1898.
Our cup tie was played at the old Northumberland Park ground on October
13 1894. Peter Hunter scored our first goal in the competition and
Donald Goodall added two more to ensure we won 3-2 in the First
Qualifying Round of the FA Cup.
Our next clash was not until 1922 by which time Watford had joined the
Football League. Bert Bliss scored the only goal of the game as we
defended the Cup.
The 1939 clash was an interesting one historically because Spurs and
Watford both wore numbered 1 to 11 shirts for the first time. There had
been a Cup Final played between Manchester City and Everton a few years
earlier but that had only been an experiment.
The fourth tie came at the Semi-Final stage of the 1986-87 competition,
which is one success few Spurs fans are really keen to remember because
of the result of the Final, which I will not mention here!
We have played few League matches against Watford, but everyone should remember Hoddle's goal at Vicarage Road in 1982-83. It is still recalled today from time to time when
discussing the genius called Glenn Hoddle. He was out on the right wing,
dummied to go one way, went the other and floated the ball over a
startled Sherwood into the Watford goal. Sherwood quickly backpeddled
but could not retrieve the situation in time.
Tomorrow's game brings back memories of the "Famous Five" and the magnificent 6-3 win in 1994 under Ossie Ardiles' management. Jurgen Klinsmann got a famous hat-trick, and three other members of the "Famous Five" also scored (Anderton, Dumitrescu, and Teddy Sheringham. The fifth member - Nicky Barmby was absent that night, but was present for the second leg, which Spurs managed to lose 3-2 at The Lane. It was after the ignominious 3-0 defeat at Notts County in the next round that season, that Ardiles got the sack, and the Gerry Francis era was soon to begin. That season we lost to Everton in the FA Cup semi-final.
Watford are a club in some turmoil at present. After their last relegation two years ago, they made last season's play-offs, but were thrashed 6-1 on aggregate by Hull. They started this season well, with 4 wins in their first 6 games (2 in the Carling Cup), but have slipped to 20th place in the 24 team Championship table. Adey Boothroyd was recently sacked and Brendan Rodgers (a former Chelsea coach) was appointed.
Watford still have striker Tommy Smith, who is their top scorer this season, and their squad includes former Chelsea defender Jon Harley - now 29 - and a veteran of other clubs including Sheffield United and most recently, Burnley. US International Jay Demerit also features in the Watford defence.
There have been suggestions that Luka Modric might be fit to make a return for this game, but I would suggest unless he needs the run, he will be saved till next Monday night. Whoever represents the mighty Spurs ought to be able to put paid to Watford, but this is a cup, and anything really could happen. I do feel confident that Spurs will pull throuh this one comfortably though.
Two more Premier League teams (Arsenal and Stoke) have tonight been knocked out of this year's Carling Cup. Spurs have every chance of progressing to Wembley to defend their trophy and return to Europe, but let's not count chickens, eh?
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