· See the current injury list for all Premiership Teams
· All the Spurs Stats you could hope for here! THFC6061 Sports Stats

FA Cup        Venue Result  Scorers

1919-20   R3     H    3-0    Wilson 2, 
			     Grimsdell
1925-26   R3     H    5-0    Dimmock 3, 
			     Osborne 2
1926-27   R3     A    2-3    Handley, 
			     Dimmock
1933-34   R4     H    4-1    W Evans 2 
			     Hunt 2
1938-39   R4     A    3-3    Morrison, 
			     Sargent,
			     Duncan
          R4/R   H    1-1    Sargent
		    (a.e.t.)
          R4/2R  *    1-2    Morrison
1955-56   R6     H    3-3    Duquemin, 
			     Robb,
 			     Harmer (p)
          R6/R   A    2-1    Harmer, 
			     Duquemin
1958-59   R3     H    2-0    Smith, 
			     Jones
2000-01   R6     A    3-2    Rebrov (2)
                             Doherty

FL Cup

1966-67   R2     A    0-1
1975-76   R4     H    0-0
          R4/R   A    2-0    Duncan, 
		    (a.e.t.) Young
1980-81   R5     A    0-1
1986-87   R5     A    1-1    C Allen
          R5/R   H    5-0    C Allen 3 (1p) 
			     Claesen
                             Hoddle
2003-04   R3     H    1-0    Zamora

Revenge would be sweet, wouldn't it?

After the events of the last few days, revenge upon West Ham would be very sweet, after their recent shock 3-0 Premier League win at White Hart Lane. That result has to be one of the factors which influenced Daniel Levy and his board regarding their final decision to part with Andre Villas-Boas.

The pressure and focus might well now fall upon West Ham manager Sam Allardyce, whose team is suffering a bad run of form, and is too close to the relegation zone for comfort. West Ham have won only one league game since that early October win against Spurs. I've often wondered how on earth we did manage to lose that game, but the answer really is that Spurs' heads went down after Vaz Te's fortuitous goal, which was the second for West Ham, which effectively rebounded off the attacker, who knew little about it.

Now Tim Sherwood, assisted by Chris Ramsey and Les Ferdinand, is in temporary charge of first team affairs, and with Steffen Freund still involved on the coaching side, the Spurs bench could get pretty crowded.

The team news for Spurs is a little more promising than I had hoped. Despite the suspension of Michael Dawson (following his fifth booking against Liverpool), the club has said that Vlad Chiriches and Danny Rose may be available for Spurs.Even Younes Kaboul is in the reckoning. Otherwise I had been thinking that the game would be interesting, because Spurs wouldn't have a defender and West Ham haven't got a striker!

Spurs could therefore field a back four of Walker/Naughton, Kaboul, Chiriches, Fryers, with Brad Friedel probably getting the game in goal. There is still plenty of choice for Spurs ahead of the defence, but I fancy Lamela, Sigurdsson and Defoe all to get game time. Christian Eriksen may also make the starting line-up. Paulinho serves the first of his three match suspension.

West Ham have been missing Andy Carroll all season and he is out for at least another two weeks. They have skipper Kevin Nolan out suspended, and players such as Stewart Downing, and Vaz Te injured. Carlton Cole, who had been released in the summer, was re-signed after the season started, but has only made 1 start for The Hammers so far. They played Modibo Maiga on Saturday in the disappointing 0-0 home ddraw against Sunderland, and also featured Ravel Morrison, who scored that third goal at The Lane in October.

I don't think we'll see the 4-6-0 approach from Sam for this game, but The Hammers will surely play with caution, and hope for a breakaway goal, despite Spurs' recent form and club misfortunes.

We've not met West Ham too often in recent years in Cup competitions, as the above list shows. The last time we met in a Cup match was in the Carling Cup in October 2003, a full 10 years ago. (Spurs 1 West Ham 0 - 29.10.03) Bobby Zamora scored his only goal in his short Spurs career, after just two minutes of extra time. West Ham were out of the Premier League that year, and their team featured future Spurs players Michael Carrick and Jermain Defoe, and one ex-Spur, Matthew Etherington.

The match took place only a month after another manager had been sacked, which was Glenn Hoddle in September, 2003. David Pleat spent the rest of the season as caretaker, and one wonders how long Tim Sherwood will remain in charge. The ball is in his court initially, if he can maintain a run of results.

Our match referee will be Neil Swarbrick, who we last saw for our 1-0 home win against Swansea in August. Of note is the fact that Andy D'Urso is the fourth official. It's several years (2005) since Mr. D'urso was removed from the Premier league list, and he still officiates regularly in Football League games. His presence is of interest because he was the match referee when the two teams met at Upton Park in March 2001, and Spurs won an FA Cup quarter-final 3-2. That was a day when the Les Ferdinand - Sergei rebrov combination was reminiscent of Gilzean and Greaves "back in the day". (West Ham 2 Spurs 3 - 11.03.01)

Despite our troubles, and the turmoil at the club, I am backing Spurs to put in a performance and win this game convincingly to progress to their fifteenth League Cup semi-final.

Did you know? - Spurs were knocked out in their very first League Cup tie in September 1966, in Round Two. They were beaten 1-0. The goal was scored by Geoff Hurst, whose world Cup winning team-mates Bobby Moore and Martin Peters also played. Jimmy Greaves, who ultimately missed out on World Cup glory, was in the Spurs side. Spurs didn't enter the following year, but like other clubs, they have taken part every year since 1968.

· 15 years ago on December 19th, Spurs lost 2-0 at Stamford Bridge in a Premier League game

Follow @spursodyssey