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· Last Year's 3rd Rd tie - Spurs 3 Palace 0
Thanks to Declan Mulcahy for some of the stats provided in this article
Spurs have never played Brighton in the FA Cup.
The only previous cup meeting was in the League cup in the 1982-83
season (Brighton were in Division 1 at the time). The first game at
WHL on October 6 was a 1-1 draw with Gary Brooke scoring Spurs goal
from a penalty. Spurs won the second leg away 1-0 on October 26.
Garth Crooks scored the goal and Tottenham went through 2-1 on
aggregate.
Spurs have only been in the same division as Brighton for five
seasons and have thus played only 10 league games as follows:
1977-78 Div 2
Nov 19 (h) 0-0
Apr 15 (a) 1-3 Jones
Don McAllister sent off
1979-80 Div 1
Sep 8 (h) 2-1 Armstrong, Hoddle (pen)
Jan 19 (a) 2-0 Hughton, Villa
1980-81 Div 1
Aug 23 (h) 2-2 Hoddle, Crooks
Jan 31 (a) 2-0 Ardiles, Crooks
1981-82 Div 1
Oct 24 (h) 0-1
Mar 9 (a) 3-1 Ardiles, Archibald, Crooks
1982-83 Div 1
Dec 28 (h) 2-0 Villa, Hughton
Apr 2 (a) 1-2 Roberts
Tony Galvin sent off
Brighton's last 6 League Games
Millwall 2-0 Brighton
Brighton 0-1 Stoke
Brighton 2-1 Gillingham
Wolves 1-1 Brighton
QPR 0-0 Brighton
Brighton 2-1 Watford
Brighton are in good form, as they like Spurs have been unbeaten over the Christmas season. Their one defeat in the last 6 games was at home to Stoke, in a league where bottom has been able to beat top on occasions, and even the front runners, Ipswich and Wigan have suffered recent blips. However, The "Seagulls" main concern will be to survive in the Coca-Cola Championship, having won their way back there via the Millennium Stadium last May. Currently, Mark McGhee's side occupy 18th position, four places and seven points away from the relegation zone that includes two-time European Cup Winners, Nottingham Forest.
Brighton have won 4 away games at Leicester, Gillingham, Nottingham Forest, and West Ham - all by 1-0 margins. Their scorer at Upton Park was ex-Spur Guy Butters, aged 35, who started his career in the 1988-9 season, but did not play for the first team till the following year when he did manage 35 league appearances. Guy's career has taken him chiefly to Portsmouth and Gillingham, and he will be looking forward to this game as much as any person in the stadium.
21 year old Adam Virgo is the "Seagulls" leading scorer with just five league goals, and Leon Knight is two behind him. Ex-Spur Bobby Zamora scored 76 goals in 125 league games for Brighton, but a more famous scorer associated with both clubs is another Bobby - Smith. Our Double side ace scorer left us for Brighton in 1964, but his footballing career did not last much longer due to a knee injury that I believe still plagues him to this day. Maybe the fact that Bobby Smith secretly deserted the Spurs 1961 Cup Final hotel three or four times for pain-killing injections had some influence on the end of his career.
Brighton's great claim to fame is the FA Cup Final of 1983, where they took Manchester United to a replay (2-2), but then lost 4-0. much to the disappointment of famous fan Des Lynam.
The match has sold out. There will be a swollen away attendance, as is the right of visiting clubs in the FA Cup, but the home fans will be rightly confident (but not cockily so) of a convincing Spurs win. It is too early for team news, but I would expect Naybet to get a rest,with Anthony Gardner coming in. I hope that one or both Fredi Kanoute and Jermain Defoe will be available, because we will need more than one striker!
This time last year, Spurs beat Brighton's nemesis club - Crystal Palace - 3-0, with a Kanoute hat-trick. I think the score could be the same again.
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