· All the Spurs Stats you could hope for here! THFC6061 Sports Stats

"It was Twenty Years ago today!"
article published 4th August, 2017

The line is a quote from the famous Beatles album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", which was re-released this year (2017) on its fiftieth anniversary.

The 1997-98 season was also twenty years ago, and match by match I intend to offer you an account of a season which started with Gerry Francis at the helm, before Christian "Hard Werk" Gross took over. Teddy Sheringham had gone to Old Trafford. Ferdinand and Ginola were signed from Newcastle, and Jurgen Klinsmann would return at Christmas-time and ultimately come to our rescue with a 6-2 win in May 1998 at Selhurst Park against Wimbledon.

Many of the reports and previews for this season's matches were written by Brian Judson, who sadly passed away in 2017 after a long battle with too many ailments. This season was the last when Brian was able to attend games. Whilst this was not a memorable season (to say the least), the archive does offer more insight into the skills and memories of a great Spurs fan and writer. Brian lives on at Spurs Odyssey through numerous contributions, and his articles were a major inspiration for this website.

This preview of the first match of the season at home to Manchester United on August 10th, 1997 was written on August 3rd, 1997.

Full League Record of Man Utd v Spurs

Prem          Pl   W   D   L   For-Ag  Pts
Home           5   1   1   3    6- 6    4
Away           5   0   1   4    2- 9    1
=========================================
Total (Prem)  10   1   2   7    8-15    5
=========================================
Football Lge
Home (Div 1)  51  20  19  12   89 -64  63
Away (Div 1)  51   9   9  33   55 -101 28
=========================================
Total(Div 1) 102  29  28  45  144 -165 91
=========================================
Football Lge
Home (Div 2)   4   2   1   1   10 - 3   5
Away (Div 2)   4   1   2   1    3 - 3   4
=========================================
Total(Div 2)   8   3   3   2   13 - 6   9
=========================================
Total (Prem)  10   1   2   7    8-15    5
Total (Div 1) 102 29  28  45  144-165  91
Total (Div 2)  8   3   3   2   13 - 6   9
=========================================
Grand Total   120 33  33  54  165-186 105
=========================================

The start of a new season often heralds optimism in the hearts of all Spurs supporters. Whatever the trials and tribulations we have endured in the previous season, we always return to Tottenham after the summer break convinced that this is going to be our year. Of course, in most seasons, these hopes and aspirations frequently receive a douche of cold water and a more realistic line of thinking emerges from the wreckage of our hopes.

It has, of course, been far too long since Spurs were serious contenders for the Championship. Many on the List have not known the nail biting tension that creeps in towards the end of the season. Indeed the only experience of nail biting towards the end of the season in recent years has been in connection with the prayers for survival at the foot of the table.

But that is all in the past. Hopefully the sun will be warm on our faces and we will all be shirt sleeved as Spurs and Manchester United run out for the start of the new season in front of the Sky Sports cameras. It will be strange to see the self-confessed Spurs nut, Teddy Sheringham, in the red of the visitors. There'll be new faces in the shape of Les Ferdinand, another self-confessed Spurs nut and Frenchman David Ginola. But, otherwise, Tottenham are likely to line up pretty much as they did last season, unless Stephen Clemence is in the team or on the bench.

Clemence is the latest of the Spurs youngsters who has come through to break into the First team whilst on the pre-season tour. Clemence will not be 20 until next March but has been training with Tottenham for quite a while. He broke through to the reserves last season, having made one substitute appearance in the season before last. His father, of course, is far better known as Ray Clemence had a long, successful career with Liverpool and England before coming south to Tottenham at the start of the 1981-82 season.

Unless you are a serious student of the game, it is unlikely that many will be aware that before the last war, Manchester United played second fiddle to Manchester City, who were regarded as *THE* team to support in Manchester. United struggled to make ends meet and were mostly found in the Second Division until the mid-1930s. In fact, they were almost relegated to the Third Division (North) at the end of season 1933-34, surviving by one point at the expense of Millwall.

It was in this period that Spurs chalked up their biggest record win against Manchester United. Spurs had made a poor start to season 1932-33 and supporters were gloomy about their prospects for the season. They were already worried about possible relegation to the Third Division (South) when Manchester United made the long trip south to White Hart Lane on September 10th 1932. Spurs thrashed Manchester United 6-1, with the great George Hunt scoring two and the deadly Willie Evans scoring two, one from the spot. Taffy O'Callaghan and Jimmy Brain, the latter having been signed from Arsenal, the previous season, completed the rout. David Levene made his debut that day. Bill Ridding, later to be manager of Bolton, scored United's consolation goal.

After the war, of course, it has been a vastly different story. Perhaps Manchester United's greatest side was the Busby Babes, who perished at Munich in February 1958. The crash was tragic because it would almost certainly have never happened today but in those days neither the FA nor the Football League believed in the European Cup and did not make allowance for the long European journeys involved. Manchester United were on their way back from playing a European Cup tie in Belgrade when their plane crashed at Munich airport. I remember standing on a freezing cold terracing at Tottenham two days later before a home game with Manchester City, paying homage to those who died at Munich.

Of the sides we've seen since, the one that sticks out in my mind most is that of the one that won at Wembley. I'd say that that side was probably the last Manchester United side that had the full support of the country behind them as we all willed them on to win the European Cup for Matt Busby's sake. The goodwill later evaporated in the antics of their hooligan fringe and then the envy as Ferguson's teams began to monopolise the silverware.

Over the years, I have witnessed many exciting Spurs -v- Manchester United League matches. Perhaps one of the best where we have won was the one where the entire forward line scored for Spurs when we beat then 5-1 in October 1965. It was not a vintage season for Tottenham (there were too many substandard players in the team) but it was still good to see Tottenham thrash Manchester United. Neil Johnson, Eddie Clayton, Alan Gilzean, Jimmy Greaves and Jimmy Robertson scored the goals that saw us win that day.

Another game I witnessed that was equally exciting was back in 1968. We'd played Manchester United twice in the Cup and beaten them 1-0 in the replay at Tottenham. They visited us three days later in a League match. As far as I can recall, it was a humdinger of a game and then Bobby Charlton scored one of his specials two minutes from the end of the match.

Younger Listees will have their own memories of Spurs -v- Manchester United matches. What I particularly remember of the last few years is that we've made very silly mistakes or had a rush of blood to the head. One needless dismissal occurred when Gazza upset a match referee one year and was sent off. His dismissal cost us the game because up to the point of his dismissal we'd looked like winning the match.

Last season, of course, we had to field a very inexperienced side because of our long injury list. We may have given the Mancunians some problems in the early stages of the game but in the end the inexperience counted and Spurs were lucky we only lost 2-1.

Spurs have not beaten Manchester United at Tottenham since winning 4-1 on 1 January 1996, nearly two seasons ago. That is our only League victory over them since 21 April 1990 when we beat them 2-1 thanks to goals by Gazza and Lineker.

Let us hope the lads get off to a good start to the season! Let's get behind the team *and* the management because we support the team not individual components in the team.

Cheers, Brian

Ed:- Look out for the report of this game next week on 10th August

Follow @spursodyssey