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Here is Brian Judson's preview of the game
Premier Pl W D L For-Ag Pts
Home 4 4 0 0 9 - 3 12
Away 5 3 0 2 10 - 7 9
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Total(Prem) 9 7 0 2 19 -10 21
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Football Lge
Home (Div 1) 37 14 12 11 57 -45 42
Away (Div 1) 37 8 11 18 31 -60 29
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Total(Div 1) 74 22 23 31 88-105 71
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Football Lge
Home (Div 2) 1 0 0 1 2 - 3 0
Away (Div 2) 1 1 0 0 2 - 1 2
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Total(Div 2) 2 1 0 1 4 - 4 2
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Total(Prem) 9 7 0 2 19 -10 21
Total(Div 1) 74 22 23 31 88 -105 71
Total(Div 2) 2 1 0 1 4 - 4 2
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Grand Total 85 30 23 34 111-119 94
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A word of warning to anyone planning to take a pocket calculator with them
to White Hart Lane in the hope of seeing Spurs thrash the opposition.
Spurs have a terrible record of losing to teams residing at the bottom of
the table. They seem to go into a match like this in an arrogant fashion
and concede silly goals in doing so. I should not have to refer to the
match played at the Stadium of Light either!
This fixture will always remind me of the day Spurs gave Steve Perryman
his debut in the first ream. The opposition was Sunderland, who were
bottom of the table. We lost 0-1 because Mike England back-headed the ball
to Pat Jennings, who was not where England thought he was.
Sunderland's best days were in the very distant past. They have not had a
great deal to sing about since the resumption of football after WW2. They
won the FA Cup as a Second Division club in 1973, beating the mighty Leeds
United side, 1-0, thanks to an Ian Porterfield goal and heroics by
goalkeeper Jimmy Montgomery. Anyone who can remember that Cup Final will
recall Bob Stokoe racing to hug Montgomery as the final whistle echoed.
Since then, of course, Sunderland have experienced football in the
basement areas of the Football League but have climbed back to the top
flight. Since Niall Quinn became more and more injury prone, leading to
his retirement last autumn, Sunderland have found it extremely difficult
to score goals. They did manage to score four goals last weekend : the
trouble was that three of them were at the wrong end of the pitch! All
three own goals were deflections from shots by Charlton strikers.
It looks very much as if Sunderland are doomed to relegation. Their
defence is leaking too many goals, they have been suffering from players
being injured and Kevin Phillips has lost goalscoring form from open play.
Manager Howard Wilkinson will need to draw on all his experience if he is
to extract Sunderland from their dire position. But he has no money to
spend and the transfer window is now closed until the end of the season.
He will have to make do with what he has got. It is obvious the players
have totally lost confidence and quickly capitulate when they fall behind.
What they need is a player like Dave Mackay or Roy Keane. Neither accepted
defeat until the final whistle echoes. Keane may be a thug at times but he
does have a terrific will to win.
Tottenham have been playing somewhat better since they were eliminated
from the FA Cup. But they still have a lot of work to do if they are to
qualify for next season's UEFA Cup. They MUST win tomorrow in order to
improve their position.
The composition of the squad depends on late fitness tests as I write.
Gardner is definitely out but there are still hopes that Richards and
Keane might play. I think that if Keane is fit enough to play, it might
just tip the balance in Tottenham's favour.
But spectators must be patient and not become irritated if Tottenham show
signs of finding it a problem trying to break Sunderland's defence down.
What they must do is to make every use of dead ball situations, thus
capitalising on the fault lines Charlton exposed last weekend. If Spurs
keep their heads, they should win.
COME ON YOU SPURS!
Cheers, Brian
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