"It was Twenty Years ago today!"
article published 22.09.2017, but first written in 1997 by the late Brian Judson

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Full Record of Spurs -v- Bolton Wanderers

Prem           Pl   W   D   L   For-Ag  Pts
Home            1   0   1   0     2-2    1
Away            1   1   0   0     3-2    3
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Total (Prem)    2   1   1   0     5-4    4
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Football Lge
Home (Div 1)   29  17   5   7    57-31  39
Away (Div 1)   29   9   3  17    38-52  21
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Total (Div 1)  58  26   8  24    95-83  60
==========================================
Football Lge
Home (Div 2)    2   2   0   0     3-1    4
Away (Div 2)    2   1   0   1     1-1    2
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Total (Div 2)   4   3   0   1     4-2    6
==========================================
Total (Prem)    2   1   1   0     5-4    4
Total (Div 1)  58  26   8  24    95-83  60
Total (Div 2)   4   3   0   1     4-2    6
==========================================
Grand Total    64  30   9  25   104-89  70
==========================================

Uppermost in most people's minds when Spurs travel north to play Bolton Wanderers tomorrow (Tuesday) night will be memories of our 6-1 thrashing last autumn in the Coca-Cola Cup. According to the early news about tomorrow's match, I gather the team is unlikely to differ much from Saturday's.

For personal reasons I will discuss this fixture in rather general terms.

Bolton have not figured as a top team for much of the last 30 odd years and were recently in the old Third Division for a few seasons. This looked odd to those of us who came remember the battling Bolton Wanderers teams of the '50s and early '60s before they started their slide to obscurity. Whilst Spurs had the elephantine Bobby Smith as their centre-forward, Bolton had Nat Lofthouse. Nat was a slimline centre forward who still looks the part today even though he must be in his late 70s. Like many of the players of the '50s, Nat has looked after himself and kept fit. Before the charging of goalkeepers was banned, Lofthouse and Smith frequently battered the goalkeepers, shoulder-charging them over the goal-line to score goals. But even though it was legal, I never liked it because I regarded it as not being within the spirit of the game and was glad when the ban was brought in.

A link that was unknown to me in the '60s between Bolton and Spurs was that their trainer was George Hunt. I wish I'd known that then because Hunt has a place in Spurs' history as he was at one time Spurs record leading goalscorer with 138 League goals to his credit before Smith overtook him in 1960. Hunt is also one of the few footballers who can claim to have played for that anonymous team from the other end of the Seven Sisters Road but George did not stay with them for very long before making the further move to Bolton.

Twice Bolton and Spurs have been involved in promotion battles. Bolton pipped us to the Second Division championship in 1908-09, our first season in the League, by one point. We were fighting it out with them and with West Bromwich Albion for promotion and all three teams had to play Derby in their final match of the season. Bolton were expected (and did) beat Derby, Spurs drew and WBA lost, if I recall correctly.

The other promotion campaign was, of course, 1977-78, when Southampton were champions, Bolton were second and Spurs were third, on goal difference, with Brighton fourth. These four teams dominated the Second Division that season. Spurs should have won the championship but dropped silly points over the course of the last six weeks which enabled Southampton and Bolton to pip them to the top two spots.

Many players have transferred between the two clubs over the years. One was Neil McNab. McNab had been one of Bill Nicholson's last signings before resigning in 1974. He had been bought primarily for the future. Unfortunately for McNab, there was another youngster on the books by the name of Hoddle .... McNab's best season for Tottenham was the promotion season of 1977-78 when McNab played in all 42 matches. But McNab was one of the unlucky players who was dropped in the wake of the 7-0 thrashing at Liverpool in September 1978. McNab complained that he had not played that badly and felt hard done by. Burkinshaw retorted that it was up to McNab to fight his way back into the team. McNab demanded a transfer and was swiftly transferred to Bolton, where he discovered that he had made a mistake. McNab later transferred to Brighton and later to Manchester City, where he probably played his best football.

Whether he would have come back into the team had he knuckled down to it is a moot point. We know now that Ardiles and Hoddle struck up a beautiful partnership but who is to say that McNab could not have done so? I doubt it because McNab was basically a player who ran with the ball whereas Hoddle made the ball do the work for him.

With the demise of Burnden Park Spurs fans can no longer pay homage to the memory of the 1901 FA Cup winners who won the replay 3-1 at Burnden Park. As Chas 'n' Dave put it ...

"It was nineteen hundred and one when Tottenham first got there
They were in the final, it was a grand affair
Sheffield United scored a goal
But finished runners-up
'Cos Cameron, Smith and Brown scored three
And Spurs took home the cup."

Cheers, Brian

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