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Here is Brian Judson's preview of the game
Full Record of Spurs -v- Manchester United
Prem Pl W D L For-Ag Pts
Home 10 3 2 5 17 -17 11
Away 9 0 1 8 4 -18 1
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Total (Prem) 19 4 3 13 21 -35 12
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Football Lge
Home (Div 1) 51 20 19 12 89 -64 63
Away (Div 1) 51 9 9 33 55 -101 28
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Total(Div 1) 102 29 28 45 144 -165 91
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Football Lge
Home (Div 2) 4 2 1 1 10 - 3 5
Away (Div 2) 4 1 2 1 3 - 3 4
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Total(Div 2) 8 3 3 2 13 - 6 9
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Total (Prem) 19 4 3 13 21 -35 12
Total (Div 1) 102 29 28 45 144 -165 91
Total (Div 2) 8 3 3 2 13 - 6 9
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Grand Total 129 35 34 60 178 -206 112
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A visit to Old Trafford is not the sort of fixture one wants to have when
one's team is low on confidence. Although Spurs seem to have dominated the
match against Sunderland on Saturday, it is clear that Spurs still lack
the confidence to convert chances to goals. We will need to maintain
concentration over the whole of the 90 minutes. It will be interesting to
see how the centre-back pairing of Dean Richards and Ledley King deal with
the threat of Ruud van Nistleroy! The truth is, I suspect, that Manchester
United could probably play their reserve team and STILL beat us!
Manchester United have had a roller-coaster ride of a season to date. For
the first time in a decade, their aspirations for the Championship are
seriously under threat. Arsenal have one giant ace up their sleeve in
Robert Pires, who would be my choice for Footballer of The Year, as he has
impressed me with his hard work and flair, something that can be said of
very few players in the current Spurs first team squad.
But old timers and historians like myself will remember that before WW2,
Manchester United were NOT the dominant club in Manchester. Indeed, they
were regarded as upstarts. They came very close to being relegated to the
old Third Division (North) at one point in the 1930s, surviving only
because they beat Millwall, at the Den, 2-0, on the final day of the
1933-34 season, condemning Millwall to relegation to the old Third
Division (South). Yet within two seasons they were back in Division One
and have remained there, apart from the solitary season of 1974-75.
Until the advent of Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Matt Busby was rightly regarded
as Manchester United's greatest manager but Ferguson is more hard-headed
than Busby was. Ferguson is not slow to discard players who he feels have
their best days behind them. Busby failed to break up his greatest side,
thus making it harder for his successors to prevent the slide to Division
2. But Busby built the more creative sides until Ferguson's current squad
started to take shape. It is a pity that Munich robbed Busby of what would
have been his greatest ever side. Their last domestic match was a 5-4
thriller at Highbury. Five days later, most of the Manchester United team
were dead or dying. No one who remembers football in February 1958 will
forget the shock and the horror of learning of that fatal crash. It took
Manchester United a decade to recover from its effects, although they did
win championships in the interim, they were not the same imperious side
they had been until the advent of one George Best.
Much has been written about Best, one of Manchester United's most
controversial players. Some think that Busby gave him far too much leeway.
I suspect Nicholson did because of the way he clamped down on Graeme
Souness. I think Ferguson has learned the lesson Busby failed to because
of the way he shields players like Beckham from the press sometimes. On
his day, Best was the greatest player in the world. He could do things
with the ball that I have never seen any other player achieve. I think
Best probably had too much success and fame far too early and it went to
his head. Best, like Greaves, is an alcoholic and has been warned one more
drink could kill him.
There are far too many memories to enumerate here ... who can forget the
salmon-like leaps of Dennis Law? .... of the thundering shots of Bobby
Charlton? .... of the jinking Willie Morgan? .... of the mercurial George
Best scoring six times against Northampton Town on his first appearance
after a suspension? .... of the towering Duncan Edwards, a colossus of a
player? ....
Spurs rarely win at Old Trafford so it was all the more surprising that in
our disastrous relegation season of 1976-77 we actually won 3-2 up there,
through goals by Coates, Pratt and Moores, three players regularly
barracked at White Hart Lane. I remember a Cup-tie where the end of
extra-time was approaching and Ossie Ardiles scored the winner. That was a
game where I think Hoddle played in goal for a long period after Milija
Aleksic was injured. There have been other occasions but these are the two
victories that stick out in my memory most ....
I think it is fairly safe to predict we will lose again on Wednesday. The
big question is whether we will try to prevent them from thrashing us or
whether we will surrender tamely. As Gary Lineker said recently, it all
depends on which Spurs team turns up for the match!
COME ON YOU SPURS!
Cheers, Brian
· Man Utd's full results so far this season
· Dare you re-live that 5-3 defeat? The report is here
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