Next Game – Tottenham Hotspur (home)

Jamie Redknapp

Tottenham were the first Premiership club to visit the Turf for a League Cup tie some nine years ago with only Liverpool having matched that. This time they arrive having made a good start to the new season and are currently in sixth place.

They have had an interesting last ten years that started with the battle of the barrow boys Sugar and Venables, a battle that Sugar eventually won. They were managed by Ossie Ardiles on their last visit to the Turf but his attack at all costs system soon so him replaced by Gerry Francis.

It was during the period that Francis was in charge that they had their best seasons in the Premiership and finished 7^th and 8^th in consecutive seasons in 1994/95 and 1995/96. Francis was soon on his way though after that to be replaced by the unknown Christian Gross and then George Graham.

It was just before the end of the 2000/01 season that Hoddle was prised from Southampton, needless to say a popular choice with the Spurs’ fans and there has definitely been an improvement since.

He has made a number of signings at prices that Burnley could only dream of, the biggest of which was in excess of £8 million for Southampton central defender Dean Richards. This was the amount he had to spend to replace Sol Campbell who moved to fierce rivals Arsenal for free on a Bosman transfer.

Robbie Keane

He followed this up by paying £7 million to Leeds and Venables at the end of August for Republic of Ireland striker Robbie Keane.

This was after a good start to the season and for a period they were leading the Premiership although they lost that place in mid September after a defeat at Fulham.

Progress in the Worthington Cup came with a 1-0 home win against Cardiff City in round two with the winning goal scored by Teddy Sheringham. Spurs are not one of the Premiership sides who use this competition to field reserve team players and the team that played against Cardiff had shown just one change from the team for the previous league game.

They lined up: Kasey Keller, Dean Richards, Ben Thatcher, Goran Bunjevcevic, Mauricio Tarrico (Gary Doherty 66), Steffen Freund (Steffen Iversen 86), Matthew Etherington, Simon Davies, Milenko Acemovic, Robbie Keane (Les Ferdinand 90), Teddy Sheringham. Subs not used: Lars Hirschfeld, Jonathan Blondel.

Whatever the result, no matter how the game goes it is certain to bring back memories of big games in the past.

Click HERE to see Spurs’ results so far this season.

He played for both

Firstly there is former manager Chris Waddle or how about the choice of a couple of former loan players at Burnley in Mark Kendall and Paul Stewart. Yes Waddle, Kendall and Stewart all played for both Burnley and Spurs. We could have chosen Paul Gascoigne but have gone for another player who left the Clarets at the end of last season, Mitchell Thomas.

Mitchell joined Spurs from Luton Town as a 21 year-old back in the summer of 1986 and immediately won himself a place in the team at left-back. His first season even ended with a trip to Wembley and an FA Cup Final appearance against Coventry City although he did finish on the losing side.

Spurs signed Gazza after this final and for the next three years he was a team mate of Mitchell’s. 1991 saw another FA Cup Final for Spurs but this time Mitchell was not in the side, Pat Van Den Hauwe won the left-back position, and in the summer he moved on to West Ham. He had played a total of 156 league games for Spurs and had scored six goals.

After just over two years there he returned to his first club Luton and it looked certain that he was going to end his career where it started at Kenilworth Road. However despite being offered a new deal he left in 1999 close season and was a surprise signing for Stan Ternent at Burnley.

Having played his entire career in the south east he settle in at Burnley very quickly despite the fans not being too keen on the new man. I think it took him all of five minutes of his first game to win us over and that in nothing more than a pre-season friendly.

He was a virtual ever present in the side that won promotion to the 1^st Division in 1999/2000 and continued in the side for the following season. Sadly his last season was blighted with injuries although once fit he immediately won his place back.

Whether Mitchell would have stayed this season had the television money not been lost is unknown but I suspect Stan would have loved to have kept him for another season at least.

He gave us three great years at the end of his career and just in case that wasn’t enough he played more than a bit part in bringing Ian Wright to Burnley. He left having played just one game short of 100 league games for the Clarets from a career total of 586.

Sadly he was never credited with a Burnley goal but would have been but for a bad offside decision by an assistant at Huddersfield in 2000.

Burnley 0 Spurs 0 – Wednesday 22^nd September 1993

Spurs 3 (Sheringham 2 Howells) Burnley 1 (Eyres)

The Clarets went in to the tie in 9^th position in the 2^nd Division after making a strange start to the season. Not a single point had been dropped at home but not a single point had been gained away from home. Spurs meanwhile were 5^th in the Premiership and had just beaten Oldham 5-0 on the previous Saturday.

Ardiles decided to play two youngsters in the full back positions, they were Stephen Carr at right-back and Sol Campbell at left-back but the rest of the side was virtually the full first team. Four players who took part in this tie are expected to line up nine years on. They are Marlon Beresford and Steve Davis for Burnley and Darren Anderton and Teddy Sheringham for Spurs. All but Anderton have left their respective clubs and returned.

Burnley turned in an excellent performance and a feature of the game was John Francis giving the young Campbell a torrid time. There certainly seemed no indication that night that he was going to go on and play for his country.

At times Spurs had to defend for their lives but Burnley also had some narrow escapes but a draw was considered a fair result. In a game where goals were expected though it remained 0-0.

Although Spurs were reduced to ten men following a red card for Darren Caskey it was to be a night of glorious failure as we fought hard throughout both on and off the field. The support was tremendous and if the Spurs fans did make any noise they were drowned out by the Clarets. All that could be heard for virtually the entire game was the constant chant of "Jimmy Mullen’s Claret and Blue Army" reminiscent of two seasons earlier at Derby.

One point of interest in the second leg (remember this was pre-Stan days) was Spurs boss Ardiles substituting a substitute when he replaced David Howells with Paul Moran.

It was though to be the end of our League Cup hopes for another season and it was Spurs who went on to Derby in the next round. In fact they won that too and then beat Blackburn in Round Four before losing out at home to Villa in the quarter-finals.

We couldn’t emulate the team of the eighties in winning at White Hart Lane but it was one more in a memorable series of cup games against Spurs.

The teams were,

Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Andy Farrell, Les Thompson, Steve Davis, John Pender, Adrian Randall, John Francis, John Deary, Adrian Heath, Kevin Russell, David Eyres.

Spurs: Ian Walker, Steve Sedgley, Sol Campbell, Vinny Samways, Colin Calderwood, Gary Mabbutt, Stephen Carr (Darren Caskey), Gordon Durie, Jason Dozzell, Teddy Sheringham, Darren Anderton.

Referee: Brian Coddington (Sheffield).

Spurs: Erik Thorstvedt, David Kerslake, Sol Campbell, Vinny Samways, Colin Calderwood, Gary Mabbutt, Steve Sedgley, Gordon Durie (David Howells, Paul Moran), Darren Anderton, Teddy Sheringham, Darren Caskey.

Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Mark Monington, Les Thompson, Steve Davis, John Pender, Adrian Randall, Nathan Peel (John Francis), John Deary, Adrian Heath, Kevin Russell, David Eyres.

Referee: Ron Bigger (Norfolk).