Today I'm going back 34 years to 1987 and Tottenham's season opener away at Highfield Road, home of Coventry City.
This was the game where Coventry City proved that their FA Cup Final victory over Spurs three months earlier had been no fluke. City had surprised everybody on that sunny summer's afternoon at Wembley in May in an FA Cup Final which would go down as one of the all-time classics but they couldn't beat Spurs twice. Could they? Well apparently they could!
Coventry were parading their new £780,000 signing David Speedie who, despite not being fully fit apparently, scored the first goal. Speedie was one of those players who made up for any shortcomings in his game by sheer hard graft and tenacity. A Scot, Speedie was a typical "up and at 'em" kind of player who could be relied upon to get under the skin of whichever defenders he was playing against. His professional career began at Barnsley in 1978 but I first remember him appearing for Darlington before securing a move to Chelsea in 1982. Chelsea were the club for whom Speedie made the most League appearances (166 scoring 47 goals) before the move mentioned here to Coventry City in 1987. Speedie scored 31 goals in 122 League appearances for the Sky Blues before further moves to Liverpool (yes really), Blackburn Rovers, Southampton and Leicester City finishing his professional career with 148 goals in 514 League appearances. He also made 10 appearances for Scotland without scoring.
The highlights show that Coventry were well worth their lead as they proceeded to pepper the Tottenham goal including one extraordinary miss from no more than twelve inches that somehow stayed out of the net. Coventry's second when it came was scored by Greg Downs following a key deflection off of Tottenham's Chris Fairclough. Spurs had a new signing of their own in flying Dutch man (is there another kind?) Johnny Metgod who came on and changed Spurs' fortunes in the second half. Metgod enjoyed a long career appearing for AZ Alkmaar, Real Madrid, Nottingham Forest, Feyenoord and, of course, Holland amongst others but he was something of a one season wonder at Spurs and made only 12 League appearances for the club.
Gary Mabbutt, picking up from where he left off in the FA Cup Final scored a deflected goal, this time at the right end but it was all in vain as Spurs huffed and puffed but couldn't get the all important equaliser. The score line was to encapsulate the season for both sides with Tottenham finishing a disappointing 13th (out of 21) whilst the Sky Blues finished three places higher in 10th position.
CRB Match No. 512
Comments
Post a Comment