"It was Twenty Years ago today!"
article published October, 2017, but first written in 1997 by the late Brian Judson
· All the Spurs Stats you could hope for here! THFC6061 Sports Stats
Full Record of Spurs -v- Leeds United
Prem Pl W D L For-Ag Pts
Home 5 3 2 0 9-3 11
Away 5 1 2 2 4-9 5
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Total (Prem) 10 4 4 2 13-12 16
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Football Lge
Home (Div 1) 28 14 8 6 47-34 37
Away (Div 1) 28 6 10 12 32-42 23
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Total (Div 1) 56 20 18 18 79-76 60
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Football Lge
Home (Div 2) 4 3 1 0 10-4 7
Away (Div 2) 4 1 1 2 3-5 3
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Total (Div 2) 8 4 2 2 13-9 10
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Total (Prem) 10 4 4 2 13-12 16
Total (Div 1) 56 20 18 18 79-76 60
Total (Div 2) 8 4 2 2 13-9 10
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Grand Total 74 28 24 22 105-97 86
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The visit of Leeds United is not a game I look forward to. One reason is
that, historically, they've always played boring football. The one
exception to that has been the side of 1973-74 when Leeds abandoned their
defensive attitude and played positive football, going undefeated from
the start of the season for 29 matches.
One Spurs -v- Leeds match has been crucial : we had to beat Leeds in our
final game of 1974-75 to avoid relegation to the old Second Division. As
most supporters will be aware, we won 4-2, our goals being scored by
Knowles (2), Conn and Chivers. It helped, of course, that Leeds were
pre-occupied by their forthcoming appearance in the European Cup Final
(which they lost).
Another Spurs -v- Leeds match (in 1981-82) was not quite so crucial,
although the fact we won 2-1 contributed to their ultimate relegation.
Kenny Burns conceded an own goal early on and Leeds were always chasing
the game after that. Garry Brooke scored our other goal.
That was the season in which we were in the hunt for four trophies until
March.
In August 1966, Spurs played the first match of the new season at home to
Leeds. We won 3-1 in a game that saw Mike England make his debut after
signing for us the previous day in preference to Manchester United.
Mullery, Greaves and Gilzean were our scorers. We fielded nine of the
side that were to play in the Cup Final the following May. Beal was
playing in place of Kinnear. He was first choice right back until
breaking an arm in February when we played Fulham. Cliff Jones and Frank
Saul shared the number 11 shirt for much of the season until Saul became
first choice towards the end of the season. But it was the clash of
Mackay and Bremner that caught the headlines. Bremner fouled Mackay and
the big man picked himself up, snarled at Bremner and grabbed his shirt,
shaking him like a rat. The referee obviously thought about sending
Mackay off before Mackay switched off the aggression and smiled sweetly
at Bremner.
One of the few regrets I have is that I never saw the great John Charles
play for Leeds. He had left Leeds for Juventus by the time I'd started to
watch Spurs regularly. In any case, Leeds were in the Second Division at
the time. But I did see Bobby Collins and Johnny Giles, two of the
smallest players ever to play at the top level. Giles was the craftier of
the two. When Bill Nicholson stood down as manager, Giles was one of
those he recommended to the Board for his successor. However, Giles was
manager at West Bromwich Albion and was not a success.
A final memory of Spurs -v- Leeds comes from 1971. It was played at
Elland Road. Leeds were top, being chased by Arsenal. As I recall from
the highlights of Match of the Day, Leeds scored first through Allan
Clarke before two powerful headers from Chivers beat Leeds. We had not
won at Leeds for ages so naturally were optimistic when we were home to
Southampton the following weekend. As usual, they were struggling at the
bottom. I believe Chivers headed us ahead and then we collapsed. Just
goes to show you little has changed over the years!
Cheers, Brian
