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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

LEAGUE CUP

Season   Rd  H/A   Result   Scorers
2011-12  3    A     0-0     
         * (lost 7-6 penalties)  

Prepare for battle Tottenham!

The one game Spurs have played to reach this Carabao Cup quarter-final against Stoke City was the Fourth Round game against Chelsea which was drawn 1-1. As all Spurs fans will remember, we qualified by winning the penalty shoot-out 5-4, thanks to a miss by Mason Mount. We need to bounce back against Stoke after managing just one point from our last three Premier League games. It won't be easy though against a newly resilient Stoke side that has lost just one of their last seven games, during which they have kept 6 clean sheets.

Unlike Spurs, Stoke have played four games to reach this phase. They beat Blackpool on penalties in the first round, and in the second round beat Wolves 1-0 at Molineux. Gillingham were beaten at the bet365 Stadium 1-0 when Tyrese Campbell (son of Kevin) scored his first goal of the season. Campbell scored 6 more goals in the Championship before suffering a knee injury in the club's defeat against Cardiff that is likely to keep him out of action for the rest of the season. 26-year-old Nick Powell has five league goals to his name and scored the only goal of Saturday's game against Blackburn.

Stoke's fourth round victims were Aston Villa, in another 1-0 win when former Burnley man Sam Vokes scored his only goal of the season. Vokes rarely starts for the "Potters" these days.

Stoke had a difficult two seasons following their relegation and at times looked likely to make another drop, causing great despondency amongst their ardent fans. Now they sit just outside the Championship play-off places after 20 games, well-placed for a challenge to those immediately above them. Their manager is Michael O'Neill, appointed in November last year. O'Neill also had the Northern Ireland job but his single position is that at Stoke now. The club seems to have benefited from being his sole focus.

In 2011 O'Neill was the manager of Shamrock Rovers, who Spurs beat at home and away in the Europa League in 2001. Harry Kane scored his first senior goal for the club in the away game which we won 4-0. 4-0 is a scoreline we repeated in three consecutive games against Stoke in 2016 and 2017. We even won the next game in the sequence 5-1 (at Wembley), but the last time we met Spurs won 2-1 at the Britannia Stadium. These games were all before the time of the current manager.

The first game of this last sequence was most memorable of course as we mounted a challenge against Leicester and sang "We're coming for you!" as Harry Kane and Dele Alli scored two apiece. Heady days indeed, and sadly unfulfilled.

I don't think this will be a 4-0. Jose Mourinho needs to be prepared for a battle, and may need to pick a stronger side than some might anticipate. Surely Dele Alli is going to get a chance here, especially with Lo Celso probably not available after his injury against Leicester. At some point Harry Kane might be required to see us through to a semi-final. In this compacted season the semi-final will consist of one game only, so this competition is clearly our best chance of a trophy (isn't it always?) with three games remaining to be played. Incidentally, the date of the Final has been pushed back to April 25th in the hope that more fans can be present. Let's' hope we are there too!

This is a competition we have won four times. For Stoke the League Cup was their one major trophy in March 1972 when they beat Chelsea 2-1. The great Gordon Banks (who died last year) was in goal. Apart from his World Cup winners' medal, Banks' only other winners' medal was a League Cup win with Leicester - against Stoke!

Stoke also reached the FA Cup semi-final in 1972, taking Arsenal to a replay. In 2011 they reached their only FA Cup Final, losing to Man City 1-0.

There are some familiar names in the Stoke City squad. One or two of the better known ones are not necessarily getting too much game time. Tom Ince, son of Paul, has started two league games, one of which was last Saturday. Ryan Shawcross, now 33 hasn't started a league game since June. He has made over 400 club appearances though.

James McClean is well known - even notorious perhaps - and is a regular for the Republic of Ireland and the club. Steven Fletcher is a veteran striker who spent the previous four seasons with Sheffield Wednesday. Former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel joined this season from Trabzonspor in Turkey, but hasn't played for three weeks. The team which beat Blackburn was Bursik; Collins, Souttar, Chester, Fox, Cousins, Tymon, Brown (sub McClean), Powell (sub Oakley-Boothe), Ince (sub Thompson) and Fletcher (sub Vokes)

Tashan Oakley-Boothe is a former Spurs Academy and Development Squad member, still aged just 20, who joined Stoke in last winter's transfer window. Tashan is a midfield player whose one senior appearance for Spurs was as a very late substitute in a League Cup win against Barnsley in 2017, although he did represent us in the EFL Trophy as part of our under-21 side in a couple of seasons. He has made three league starts and 10 substitute appearances this season. Incidentally, Dele scored the only goal of that Barnsley game.

As you can see above, we have only ever met Stoke once in the League Cup. That was in September 2011 when the game finished 0-0 and we lost the penalty shoot-out 7-6 with debutant Massimo Luongo having the misfortune to see his penalty saved by Sorenson. That was Luongo's one Tottenham appearance. Now aged 28 he's a former Australian International and currently plays for Sheffield Wednesday.

As for tomorrow's team, it is difficult to predict. Erik Lamela has returned to full training. There has to be some rotation witn the fixtures to come. I would have thought that the subs for Sunday's game, plus a couple of strong re-inforcements will start, with big guns such as Son and Kane on the bench, so perhaps Hart; Doherty, Sanchez (Rodon is cup-tied), Davies, Reguilon; Dele, Winks; Bale, Ndombele, Bergwijn; Vinicius? I'd also like a 4-0 win, but I think it is going to be close. I'll say 2-0.

The game is being shown live on Sky Sports and kicks off at 5.30pm tomorrow (Wednesday). The semi-final draw follows the Everton v Manchester United game. Let's hope a) that we are in it, and b) that we get Brentford or Newcastle!

Our match referee will be Darren England who has yet to be in the middle for a Spurs game, although we have encountered him as either fourth official, or VAR. There is no VAR for this game. Mr. England has been in charge of three Premier League games so far this season.

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