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Spurs Full Cup Record against Chelsea

FA Cup

SEASON   RD   H/A   Score SCORERS

09-10    2     A     1-0  Humphreys
56-57    4     H     4-0  Harmer R Smith 
			  Stokes Medwin
63-64    3     H     1-1  Dyson
         3R    A     0-2
64-65    5     A     0-1
66-67    F     W     2-1  Robertson Saul
81-82    6     A     3-2  Archibald Hoddle 
			  Hazard
01-02    6     H     0-4


League Cup

71-72   S-F    A     2-3  Chivers, Naylor
71-72   S-F    H     2-2  Chivers, Peters
90-91   Q-F    A     0-0
90-91   Q-F    H     0-3
01-02   S-F    A     1-2  Ferdinand
01-02   S-F    H     5-1  Iversen, Sherwood
                          Sheringham, Davies
                          Rebrov

The game I remember most is the 1967 FA Cup Final. It was, in my opinion, the most one-sided Final I have ever seen, even more so than the Manchester United -v- Brighton replay, which the Reds won 4-0. The simple truth is that, on the day, Chelsea froze and played nothing like their normal form at all. Perhaps the factors that led to Docherty's abrupt departure later were already in play. Certainly life at the Bridge was never dull whilst Docherty was there.

Spurs sprung a major shock from the outset by playing Mackay in a defensive position whilst Mullery, who had played that role for most of the season, was given the role that Mackay had played in swashbuckling style. Mackay's role was simply to nullify the threat that Cooke could pose. He was chivvied into positions where he could do no damage and Chelsea had no idea how to set about releasing Cooke. Tambling and Hateley were subdued and were rarely seen. Also, Kinnear, although with just a season behind him, emerged as the star of the game, closing down Boyle. Gilzean's deft flicks terrorised the Chelsea defence and Hinton ran around like headless chickens trying to shore up the gaps and cracks that were appearing.

Just before half-time, Spurs struck. Mullery surged down the pitch like a tank as the Chelsea players backed off. Mullery let fly at the ball, which struck Ron Harris and rebounded to Robertson, who cracked home a shot low and hard to elude the diving Bonetti! Spurs celebrated and knew they were certain to win, given their long undefeated run of 23 games without a defeat since early January.

In the second half, Chelsea seemed bemused and hesitant. Spurs continued to press forward with Knowles leading the charge down the left wing. Hollins conceded a throw-in. Mackay sauntered up, took one look at the goalmouth and took a long throw. Kinnear headed the ball to Robertson, who steered the ball to Saul. With his back to the goal, Saul spun round on a sixpence and slashed the ball beyond Bonetti's despairing dive.

At this point, Chelsea started to play as they should have done much earlier. They knew they had nothing to lose by pushing everyone forward. Spurs could have scored twice more when Kinnear chipped balls across the Chelsea goalmouth. In one, Saul and Gilzean left it to each other to react and the chance was gone. In the other, Saul over-ran the ball and reacted too late.

Then, with time ebbing away, Chelsea scored. Jennings was at fault with the goal as he decided to try to punch the ball clear instead of catching it. Needless to say, Jennings missed it and the ball hit Tambling on his head and dropped in to Tottenham's goal. Spurs then played out the final four minutes, preventing Chelsea from snatching an undeserved equaliser and forcing extra time.

Many people will have made the journey to Stamford Bridge in March 1982 to witness our tie there. The 15-minutes that saw us score three second half goals was probably the best football we played under Keith Burkinshaw. Fillery had given Chelsea a half-time lead when he had taken a 25-yard free-kick that had caught Spurs by surprise. Spurs equalised soon after half-time when Chelsea's keeper, Steve Francis, failed to hold on to a Hoddle shot and Archibald had whipped the ball into the net before Francis could recover. (Remember those chants of "Archie! Archie! Archi-BALD! We'll take MORE care of you ARCH-IE-BALD!"?????) Hoddle then put us ahead after a bout of brilliant passing from Archibald to Hazard, on to Hoddle, who scooped the ball home. Hazard scored the third to leave Spurs well in control but Alan Mayes struck back in the closing minutes to give Chelsea hope of snatching an equaliser.

I remember the 5th Round tie at Stamford Bridge in 1965. I stood on the huge terracing that day in a 70,000+ crowd. Tottenham were very disappointing and rarely looked like beating Chelsea, losing 1-0. This was, of course, the Chelsea team skippered by Venables and featuring players like Graham, Bridges, Murray, Bonetti, the Harris brothers, Eddie McCreadie, John Boyle and others. Later on, of course, Docherty and Venables fell out, principally because Venables was caught coming back to their Blackpool hotel after a night out on the tiles with several of his team mates. Venables tried to bluff his way out of trouble but was sent back to London in disgrace.

..and now, me!

Spurs seem to meet Chelsea more often than not in major Cup ties, rather than the early stages of a competition. Whilst Spurs lost the tie for which Brian's notes served as a partial preview by an embarrassing 4-0, and despite the domination that Chelsea have enjoyed over us for so many years, we no longer travel to Stamford Bridge in such a state of trepidation as usual.

After all, Spurs are in a fine run of form, now on 5 consecutive wins, and they did achieve that famous 2-1 Premiership win in November, when Aaron Lennon scored a dramatic winner after Robbie Keane had left Boulahrouz on the floor with his run down the left wing.

Lennon has been playing to good effect down the Spurs left in recent games, but I do wonder if Martin Jol will make a surprise switch and release Aaron upon Ashley Cole.

There is still a doubt about whether or not John Terry can return to the Chelsea side after his Carling Cup head injury, and his presence/absence could well be the key to success/failure. There is no doubt that a chink appeared in the defensive armoury ar Stamford Bridge when Terry was previously out through injury.

Jermaine Jenas is still a doubt for Spurs, but otherwise there are no new absentees from Martin Jol's line-up. Apart from our present form; our goal-scoring prowess, and that November win, Spurs can also point to some decent away performances in the Premiership in recent years. Last year, after all, it was only a last minute goal by Gallas that secured all three points for Jose's men. The year before we had the team bus parked in front of goal!

There will be over 6,000 Spurs fans packed into the upper and lower tiers of the notorious "Shed End", and surely an action-packed exciting Cup tie is in store for BBC viewers!

Whoever wins this tie will become one of the favourites for the Cup. Assuming that Manchester United succeed against Middlesbrough, United would be the only team left to fear in the competition. I am not getting carried away in a wave of optimism, and my head says that Chelsea will win on Sunday, perhaps by an odd goal, but please, please, please - LET IT BE SPURS!

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