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They're "Up for the Cup". Will we be?
Spurs have never played Cheltenham Town in a competitive match. Of the current Premier League, Cheltenham have previously met Fulham, Norwich, QPR, Stoke, Sunderland, Swansea, Wigan and Wolves in competitive football. (Thanks to Mark Halliwell (@MarkHalliwell1 on Twitter) for putting me right on a couple of points.
Various dates are given for the formation of Cheltenham Football Club, but the Sky Soccer yearbook gives 1892 as the year of foundation. The club turned professional in 1932, but did not enter the Football League until 1999, after winning promotion from The Conference. Wikipedia suggests that the club was founded in 1887.
Cheltenham are currently in great form in League Two. they are second by one point only to Crawley, who have great financial resources, and have gone straight to the top of the league after their promotion from The Conference last year. Cheltenham have already had a spell in League One, or its equivalent, and are just trying to get back to that level.
"The Robins" are currently unbeaten in 9 league and cup games, and have lost just two matches in their last 19 games, one of which was a JPT game against Barnet. Their top scorer is 27 year old Darryl Duffy, who has scored 10 in all competitions, but 5 of those have been from the penalty spot. 27 year old Kaid Mohamed has scored 6 goals, all in the league, and all from open play. He can play anywhere across the front line. Another striker is 20 year old James Spencer, on loan from Huddersfield. He has scored 7 goals in all competitions.
Cheltenham have reached this stage of the FA Cup by beating Tranmere (away) 1-0 in the first round, then Luton (away) 4-2 in the second round. In fact this is the second year running that we have met the victors of Luton in the FA Cup Third Round. Last year, we met Charlton ( Spurs 3 Charlton 0 - 9th January 2011 ), and beat them 3-0 with Andros Townsend scoring a goal on his senior debut. Sadly, Townsend won't be available for us, as he is on loan at Leeds for the rest of this season. This would have been a good game for him to play, but let's wish him luck against the gooners!
Cheltenham's best year in the FA Cup was 10 years ago in 2001-02, when they reached the fifth round, only to be knocked out by Gary Megson's West Brom, when they were in Division One (The Championship). "The Robins" knocked out Kettering, Hinckley Utd, Oldham, and Burnley on their run, and even at the end of that year's competition, Cheltenham's Tony Naylor was the equal top goalscorer in the competition. His team-mate Julian Alsop was only one goal behind on four. Our own Jermain Defoe, then with West Ham, also scored 4 FA Cup goals that year.
Cheltenham's manager Mark Yates was a Cheltenham player during that cup run, so he knows all about the club, and its history. He's obviously doing a great job at present too. There are hordes of Cheltenham fans (over 5,000) making the trip to The Lane for this game. The game is a sell-out which is great for the competition, which so often sees apathy these days even at quite high level in the league. This is Spurs though!
Other former Cheltenham managers have included former Southampton hero Terry Paine (1979), Jim Barron (1988-90), Steve Cotterill (1997-2002), Bobby Gould (2003) and Martin Allen (2008-09). It was Steve Cotterill that led Cheltenham into the Football League proper, launching his further career, which currently places him at Nottingham Forest.
Cheltenham fans will have their own favourites past and present of course, but I found three relatively famous names amongst those of former Cheltenham players. Andy Gray (Yes, the now notorious one) ended his playing career with Cheltenham. Another former Villa man, the diminutive Alan Wright, was with Cheltenham for a couple of seasons recently, until he moved to Fleetwood town. Wright's playing days are over and he is a coach at Blackpool. Finally, Barry Hayles, now aged 39, also played with Cheltenham in recent years, but moved to non-league Truro City in 2010.
I've not found many Spurs connections with Cheltenham. Two former Spurs Junior players had loan periods with "The Robins". Full back Sam Cox, now with Barnet, played one game for Cheltenham in the 2009-10 season. Attacking midfielder David Hutton played more games for Cheltenham. He was on loan from Spurs in 2008-09, and was then signed for the 2009-10 season. Hutton then left for St. Albans, but has also spent some time with Glenn Hoddle's academy, before moving to non-league Borehamwood this season. Sam Cox is currently on loan there from Barnet. Hutton will be tomorrow's game, as Borehamwood's opponents (Salisbury) do have an FA Cup game.
Clearly Spurs are going to rest some of their fit key players for next Wednesday night's Everton game. Some of the players we might have seen have already gone out on loan, now we are out of the Europa League. Harry Kane is at Millwall, and Townsend at Leeds.
We do know that, barring mishaps, Michael Dawson will make his first appearance since August, and Harry Redknapp has also suggested that Aaron Lennon may be fit enough to make a return and re-gain some match fitness. I think we can expect to see a decent enough Spurs team which might include Gomes/Cudicini; Corluka, Dawson, Bassong, Rose; Lennon, Kranjcar, Pienaar, Giovani; Defoe and Pavlyuchenko.
Cheltenham then will be "Up for the Cup". The question remains, will Spurs also be "Up for the Cup"? One of the only two teams above us in the Premier League will be out after this round, so that would be the first step along the way to clearing the path for Spurs to have a long-awaited FA Cup Wembley Final. We'd love it!
I am sure that Harry won't be under-estimating Cheltenham, whose form is good, and whose desire to perform well will be without question. I don't see a thrashing on the horizon, but a 2-0 win for Spurs.
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