with thanks to Declan Mulcahy
It is hard to think of another Tottenham player who has had so much bad luck as Michael Dawson while playing in the FA Cup for the team.
Here is his catalogue of woes:
Jan 8, 2006: Dawson makes his FA Cup debut for Tottenham away to Leicester City. The team lose 3-2, the only occasion in more than 20 seasons up to now that Spurs have lost an FA Cup match against lower league opposition. (Leicester 3 Spurs 2 - 8th January, 2006)
Jan 27, 2008: Tottenham are away to Manchester United in a fourth round match. They take an early lead but United equalise before half time. At the three-quarter mark Dawson handles the ball in the box. He is sent off and Ronaldo scores from a penalty to put United 2-1 ahead. United eventually win 3-1 against the ten men. (Man Utd 3 Spurs 1 - 27th January, 2008)
April 11, 2010: Tottenham are drawn against bottom-of-the-table Portsmouth in the FA Cup semi final at Wembley. Spurs are clear favourites and beat Portsmouth 2-0 in the league 14 days before the Wembley match.
The semi-final proves unexpectedly difficult. The match goes to extra time. After 9 minutes of extra time Dawson falls on the slippery Wembley turf presenting Piquionne with a clear chance on goal from which he scores. Chasing the game Spurs concede a late penalty and Portsmouth go through 2-0 to the final. (Spurs 0 Portsmouth 2 - 11th April, 2010)
Jan 30, 2011: Spurs are drawn away to Fulham in the FA Cup fourth round. A nightmare game for Tottenham. They concede two penalties in a three minute spell in the first quarter of an hour and Fulham convert both. Dawson concedes the second one after 13 minutes and is sent off for a professional foul. Fulham eventually win 4-0 against the ten men. (Fulham 4 Spurs 0 - 30th January, 2011)
March 7, 2012: Fifth round replay against League One Stevenage. After only 9 minutes Dawson suffers serious injuries which may well end his season. (Spurs 3 Stevenage 1 - 7th March, 2012)
P.S. - Yesterday's double goal-scorer Jermain Defoe was convincingly your man of the match, scoring his highest mark of the season to date. Apart from Louis Saha, who has scored 3 goals in his 300 minutes of Spurs football, Jermain has the best goals per minutes played ratio in the side, with 15 goals in 1,827 minutes equalling a goal every 122 minutes. Adebayor's current ratio is a goal every 188 minutes played. Last season's best ratio was by Pavlyuchenko with a goal every 173 minutes.
