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· This Season's Carling Cup 5th Round - Spurs 1 Southend 0
· Spursometer for Carling Cup - 50%
· NEW! - See the current injury list for all Premiership Teams!
Spurs and Southend have never met in League Competition
Full record of Spurs v Southend
FA CUP
1920-21 Rd 3(A) W 4-1
(Banks, Seed, Cantrell, Bliss)
1935-36 Rd 3(H) D 4-4
(Sargent 2, Morrison 2)
(Replay) Rd 3(A) W 2-1
(Sargent, W. Evans)
Lge CUP
1989-90 Rd 2(H) W 1-0
(Fenwick)
Rd 2(A) L 2-3
(P. Allen, Nayim)
Spurs won on away goals
2006-07 Rd 5(H) W 1-0
(Defoe)
Spurs welcome Southend back to White Hart Lane this Saturday, just five and a half weeks after the "Shrimpers" brave fight against us in the fifth round of the Carling Cup. It took a Jermain Defoe goal, five minutes from the end of extra time to send Spurs through to this month's semi-final. Therefore, despite their ongoing Championship struggles, the visitors will carry confidence before them, not least because of our failure to assert ourselves so far this year, except for the 4-0 defeat of Cardiff in the Third Round replay.
Southend had an FA Cup replay too, beating Barnsley 2-0 at Oakwell, after a 1-1 at Roots Hall. Lee Bradbury seems to have found some form, scoring two goals in the last three games, whilst Freddy Eastwood has not got on the score sheet since early December.
Southend have won three of the eight games played since our last match. Immediately after our game, they lost 4-0 at home to leaders Birmingham, but they beat promotion contenders West Brom 3-1 at home, and recently beat Cardiff at Ninian Park 1-0, which is more than Spurs could manage!
This will be the ninth occasion that Spurs have met the same team in both domestic cup competitions. Whilst the League Cup was established in the 1960-61 season, in the early years, not all League teams entered, and Spurs first entered in the 1966-67 season.
Our "double cup" opponents were Aston Villa in 68-69, Manchester United in 1979-80, Liverpool in 1984-85, and then Wimbledon in 1998-99, when of course we won the Worthington Cup.
In 2001-2, we met three teams in both competitions, with mixed fortunes. We beat Bolton 10-0 on aggregate in the two games played, and also Tranmere 8-0, but drew 5-5 with Chelsea. The famous 5-1 League Cup semi-final win was soured firstly by defeat at Cardiff to Blackburn, then by a horrible sixth round FA Cup defeat at White Hart Lane. Chelsea beat us three days later at Stamford BRidge in the Premiership by the same margin for good measure.
You also won't thank me for reminding you of the last time we played the same team in both Cups. It was in 2003-4, when we met Manchester City. Having beaten then 3-1 at home in the League Cup, and drawn at Eastlands in a televised game, the world and his dog witnessed the amazing turn around at White Hart Lane, when Spurs succumbed to one of the greatest ever Cup come-backs by only ten men. Even Southend readers will remember the scoreline of 4-3 to City.
You can access match reports for all the games since 1998-9 via the Archives link on this page.
There is no team news yet, but Martin Jol will surely want to keep players fit for next week's second leg with Arsenal. That game represents our best chance of Cup success at this moment, despite the state of the tie and standard of opposition. Therefore, I would not expect Berbatov to feature on Saturday - even if he has recovered from his groin strain. Will Ricardo Rocha get a club debut at the back? Is there space for a Spurs youngster or two to creep into the midfield? If Aaron Lennon is not 100% (and he did not finish in great condition last night), then Mark Yeates would readily step in, or perhaps even loan signing Adel Taraabt might sneak an appearance?
One thing is for certain, and that is there is no room for complacency, and Spurs will need to be on their mettle. The fans are, that's for sure. Not for the first time this season, we need hearty re-assurance in the ability of our side to get success this season. I'll back Spurs to win by two goals, but I want it to be more!
· Did you know? One time Spurs target, Michael Ricketts (who I did mention in the preview for the Carling Cup game) had already been discarded by Southend when I wrote about him in December, having made just two susbtitute appearances. Ricketts has now turned up at Preston, where he also made two recent substitute Championship appearances.
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