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Full Cup Record of Spurs v Stoke:-
FA CUP
Season Rd H/A Result Scorers
1895-96 1 A 0-5 -
1898-99 3 A 1-4 Bradshaw
1946-47 3 H 2-2 Ludford, Bennett
3R A 0-1 -
1949-50 3 A 1-0 Baily
1975-76 3 H 1-1 Duncan
3R A 1-2 Perryman
Spurs to field competitive side!
Spurs have never previously met Stoke City in the League Cup competition, and have only ever met them in five FA Cup ties down the years. Stoke have won four of those five ties. The last Cup meeting between the sides was in January 1976.
Stoke's only major honour was the 1972 League Cup. These were days before the absence of replays, and Stoke had to play no less than 11 matches just to get to that final, when they beat Chelsea 2-1, with a team that featured the great Gordon Banks in goal, with Marsh, Pejic, Bernard, Smith, Bloor, Conroy, Greenhoff (sub Mahoney), Ritchie, Dobing and Eastham. Tony Waddington's Stoke faced Dave Sexton's Chelsea, who at the time were the European Cup-Winners' Cup holders. Stoke had beaten Manchester United on the way to the final, and conquered West Ham in an epic semi-final played over two legs, and two replays!
Stoke also got to the FA Cup semi-final that year (beaten by Arsenal in a replay), and that run also required 8 matches. It's no wonder that their league form suffered at the end of the season in the days of muddy stamina-sapping pitches, and they finished 17th in the 22 team First Division.
The only time we were on an equal footing with Stoke in terms of league status was in the last of the five ties, when we were both in the first division. Spurs were a non-league team in the 1890s, and in Division Two below Stoke in the 1940s. Our solitary cup win came in a promotion year in 1949-50.
In 1975-76, Spurs were managed by Terry Neill, surely the most hated of all Spurs managers by their own fans. John Duncan scored the Spurs goal in a 1-1 home draw in the third round, but despite Steve Perryman's goal, we lost the replay 2-1. We had also drawn the home league game, and a month after the cup defeat, we managed an away league win.
Stoke had two years out of the top flight between 1977-79, came back for 6 years, and then disappeared until three years ago, when Tony Pulis led them to the Premier League, where they are in their fourth season. Their progresss has been good, and now they are in Europe again, after losing to Man City in last season's FA Cup Final. There were no Redknapp tactics by Pulis for their match in Kiev, and perhaps Stoke paid for that in Sunday's 4-0 defeat at Sunderland.
The fact that this game is being played within two days of our last league games and the price being charged for tickets (£15) does suggest that both teams will be somewhat less than full strength. It remains to be seen whether Spurs fans will see any of their former players, Crouch, Palacios, Woodgate and Etherington. All bar Etherington would get a popular reception.
Harry Redknapp has said that both William Gallas and Sandro, who recently returned to full training, are likely to make an appearance, and those senior players who didn't start on Sunday are likely to appear. That suggests a possible line-up of Gomes; Corluka, Gallas, Bassong, Townsend; Kranjcar, Livermore, Sandro, Giovani; Van der Vaart and Pavlyuchenko. This would be a far stronger team than that which travelled to Greece, and competitive enough to come away from the Britannia stadium with a result. There will be a chance for some of the youngsters too. I think Spurs will win by the odd goal.
I am unable to attend this game, but hope to be able to provide some form of report nevertheless. As always, those of you who do see the game will get the chance to vote for your Spurs man of the match!
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