"It was Twenty Years ago today!"
article published October, 2017, but first written in 1997 by the late Brian Judson

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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

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