In theory, Orient, nowadays known as Leyton Orient, have a fair claim to be Tottenham's chief local rivals. It's just 5.1 miles by car from the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to Brisbane Road (compared to 4.3 miles to the Emirates Stadium, home of Arsenal). However, in the football pecking order, Orient have always tended to figure in the lower divisions of the Football League and so get patted on the head by Tottenham supporters, many of whom have a soft spot for "The O's". One Tottenham supporter with such a soft spot is Harry Kane who last season went as far as being the shirt sponsor for Leyton Orient, the club that gave him his first professional start. Of course, Orient didn't run around in shirts with Harry Kane's name plastered all over the front. Instead the space was donated to enable a Thank You message for front line workers to be displayed during the Covid19 pandemic. What a role model Harry Kane is in not forgetting his roots in an age where prospective Super League sides want to leave the smaller clubs behind altogether. Hats off to you Sir!
The programme cover is adorned by former Tottenham favourite Chris Jones in action for The O's. Jones joined Tottenham as an apprentice in 1983 and remained at the club until 1982 when Manchester City paid £110,000 to sign him. He was however destined to make only three appearances for City in two months before being offloaded to Crystal Palace. That was followed by a short stint at Charlton Athletic before Jones found himself signing for Orient in 1984. Jones made more league appearances for Tottenham (164 scoring 37 goals) and Orient (107 scoring 19 goals) than the other clubs mentioned so his place on the programme cover for this game was a fitting one. Jones is also slightly unusual in that he hails from the Island of Jersey and remains a Jerseyman to this day.
Occasionally Orient have been able to stop the patronising top flight fans in their tracks and give the clubs they support a right good seeing to! This was just such a night. Orient totally embarrassed their more affluent neighbours by 2-0 and Spurs were left to thank their lucky stars that the tie was a two legged affair and that they had another chance to turn it around at White Hart Lane. Turn it around they did by duly beating Orient 4-0 a fortnight later but Orient and their fans could hold their heads high having beaten the mighty Tottenham over 90 minutes.
Spurs at the time were managed by Peter Shreeves who was promoted from the post of Assistant Manager following the departure of Keith Burkinshaw in 1984. Shreeves had done relatively well in his first season in charge steering Tottenham to third place but he was never a favourite with the fans on account of the fact that he "wasn't a big enough name" and was eventually replaced by David Pleat in March 1986 following a less successful second season. Although Pleat had experienced considerable success at Luton Town, he wasn't in possession of a big enough name either but the Tottenham whiners were forced to shut up and watch as Pleat's side played the brand of football that the supporters wanted to see. Orient's manager at the time was Frank Clark, who as a player had had something of a renaissance and had won a European Cup winner's medal with Nottingham Forest under Brian Clough in the twilight of his career. Indeed Clark came highly recommended by Clough as management material and managed Orient from 1983 until 1991 before taking up the reigns at Nottingham Forest and then Manchester City although he never quite lived up to Clough's billing of him. But on this early autumn evening in East London, Clark was surely a genius!
Comments
Post a Comment