Saturday 26th August, 1978
Spurs 2 Chelsea 2
On Saturday 26th August, 1978, Spurs entertained Chelsea and
drew 2-2. The programme price was 20p, and the club handbook cost
the princely sum of 45 pence!
Spurs side was :- Daines; McAllister, Gorman, Lacy, Perryman;
Hoddle, Villa, Ardiles, McNab; Armstrong (Gerry!), and John
Duncan.
Ian Moores stood by as substitute, and the Spurs goals were
scored by Duncan and Armstrong.
The Chelsea side as published (not necessarily the side that
played)was:- Bonetti; Locke, Ron Harris, Hay, Droy; Wicks, Swain,
Wilkins, Langley; Stanley and Walker.
The Chelsea manager was Ken Shellito
The referee was T.G. BUNE ( I thought my writing said Bung for
a minute, but I was obviously thinking of someone else!)
This match followed the disastrous 4-1 defeat at home to Aston
Villa. I well remember attending that game, and being part of the
ticker-tape welcome for the Argentinian signings, and being so
depressed about the result, that I didn't visit the lane for
several years afterwards!
Spurs recovered some pride in front of 40,632 fans, but were
soon to suffer the ignominy of that 7-0 defeat at Anfield, which
stood as our record defeat until the advent of the Inter-Toto Cup
in recent years and a certain 8-0 loss by a team containing youth
and guest players. It is a matter of regret that this last result
has made it to the record books.
In the 78-79 season,Spurs eventually finished 11th, whereas
Chelsea were relegated as the bottom side with just 20 points.
Those were the days! We were to beat Chelsea 3-1 away that year,
so it would b nice to emulate such points returns this season.
In the programme, Gerry Armstrong and (the late) Ian Moores
featured in action from a 4-0 pre-season win against Bohemians. (See
picture)
There was also a picture (below) of Ricky Villa scoring his
debut league goal for Spurs at Nottingham Forest on day one of
the season, when we drew 1-1.
Reserve full-back Chris Hughton was described as the hardest
working holiday maker, as he combined football with his job as an
apprentice engineer. Clearly there was not a full time living to
be made as a reserve in those days. Centre back John Lacy was
featured in the spotlight. Ray Wilkins was pictured with hair,
and there was an item on the great Jimmy Greaves who of course
had started his career at Chelsea, before coming to Spurs via
Italy.
The programme reported that Mark Falco had been upgraded to
full professional, and a certain Kerry Dixon had signed for us as
a part time professional. Dixon was soon to be featuring on the
Youth Team score sheet, and later became a Chelsea favourite.
Other results on this date over the last 40 years are:-
61-62 H v Arsenal W 2-1
67-68 H v West Ham W 5-1
72-73 H v Leeds D 0-0
85-86 H v Everton L 0-1
89-90 A v Man City D 1-1
95-96 H v Liverpool L 1-3
The next item in this series will be on 5th September, when I
hope to feature the Everton programme from the 92-93 season.
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