In a week when former Tottenham manager Bill Nicholson died it was somewhat appropriate that we should be paired together in the draw, Spurs’ glory years coincided with ours and it would be perfect if we could give everyone a reminder tonight of those great games in the days of Bill Nick and Harry Potts, of Danny Blanchflower and Jimmy Mac.
It’s a different
There’s been mention of personal problems in
It is something of a strange set up at Tottenham (no longer Tottingham without Argentinian World Cup winners) who appointed a Sporting Director and a First Assistant (what sort of job titles are they?) before bringing in the Head Coach (manager). It was always doomed to failure and it looks as though they haven’t learned from the Pleat/Hoddle days.
Three is now down to two with Jol taking over the hot seat whilst Arnesen presumably gets on with directing sport.
There have been suggestions that Spurs have been somewhat negative this season. “Boring, boring Tottenham,” has been heard but we know all about that and it usually comes after a good result from a manager whose team weren’t good enough on the day to break you down – for Royle read Mourinho.
They made a decent enough start to the league season and were unbeaten in their first seven games but they have failed to maintain that sort of form and in the six games since have lost all but one, the solitary win coming via a fortunate 1-0 victory at Everton.
Saturday’s defeat at the hands of Charlton was their fourth successive league defeat and the 3-2 scoreline could have been much worse as they had trailed 3-0 to Alan Curbishley’s team.
Their cup form has been better and they find themselves in the fourth round. Spurs have won cups in the past without ever leaving
There were at
Click HERE to see all Spurs’ results this season.
As the draw was made they were still playing at the Reebok but it just seemed so inevitable that it would be Spurs.
It’s another cup tie for some
Martin Jol believes the game tonight will be about passion rather than tactics and is a coach who is taking the tie very seriously indeed. Like David O’Leary in the last round he is expected to name as strong a side as possible.
That will not include Goran Bunjevcevic who is out after having surgery following Saturday’s game against Charlton. Bunjevcevic, who was mercilessly murdered by Glen Little two years ago suffered acute compartment syndrome.
Erik Edman, Anthony Gardner, the delightfully named Thimothee Atouba and Sean Davis will also be missing. Davis will probably be happy about that, he would get anything but a warm welcome after trying to rip Tony Grant’s leg in two when we played Fulham in the FA Cup two seasons ago.
Spurs are travelling up this morning and are bringing a seventeen man squad with Jol claiming it will be their strongest starting eleven.
They will select from: Paul Robinson, Kasey Keller, Noe Paramot, Noureddine Naybet, Ledley King, Simon Davies, Pedro Mendes, Jamie Redknapp, Robbie Keane, Frederic Kanoute, Jermain Defoe, Michael Brown, Reto Ziegler, Michael Carrick, Edson Silva Sousa, Mauricio Taricco, Johnnie Jackson.
Now onto
We know that Ian Moore, Richard Chaplow, Danny Coyne and Jean-Louis Valois are ruled out and as well as McGreal and Sinclair we could also be without Graham Branch, and James O’Connor is cup tied, in a match that really is one too far for our beleaguered squad.
If none of the injured players make it we could be lining up: Brian Jensen, Lee Roche, Michael Duff, Gary Cahill, Mo Camara, Richard Duffy, Micah Hyde, Tony Grant, Mark Yates, Amadou Sanokho, Robbie Blake. Subs: Paul Scott, Joel Pilkington, Matt O’Neill.
Last time was two years and three days ago when the Clarets came storming back on a Glen Little/Robbie Blake inspired night to win 2-1 after falling behind.
Gus Poyet gave Spurs the lead and that prompted Stan Ternent to replace central defender Mark McGregor with Glen Little and it turned the game on its head. We were superb and it was Steve Davis who headed the winner after Robbie Blake had hit a stunner to equalise.
Even so it could have gone to extra time but Marlon Beresford, with us on one of his month long deals, made a stunning save from Robbie Keane.
The teams looked somewhat different to those who will play tonight – they were:
Burnley: Marlon Beresford, Dean West, Mark McGregor (Glen Little 26), Arthur Gnohere, Graham Branch, Paul Weller, Steve Davis, Tony Grant, Lee Briscoe (Paul Cook 90), Robbie Blake (Dimitri Papadopoulos 85), Gareth
Spurs: Kasey Keller, Stephen Carr, Chris Perry, Anthony Gardner, Goran Bunjevcevic, Matthew Etherington (Darren Anderton 60), Stephen Clemence, Gus Poyet, Simon Davies, Steffan Iversen (Gary Doherty 81), Les Ferdinand (Robbie Keane 45). Subs not used: Lars Hirschfeld, Milenko Acemovic.Doyle.
Previous 20 Seasons | |||||
Season | Div | Ven | Result | Att | Scorers |
1993/94 | LC | h | 0-0 | 16,844 | . |
. | . | a | 1-3 | 20,614 | Eyres |
2002/03 | LC | h | 2-1 | 13,512 | Blake Davis |
Click HERE
to see all our results against Spurs, needless to say starting with a cup tie which was in 1906.