Today I'm going back 27 years to 1994 and Tottenham's visit to Vicarage Road, Watford in the 1st Leg of their League Cup Second Round tie.
Strangely resplendent in a tracksuit and oversized baseball cap, manager Ossie Ardiles' Spurs and his side went into the game having lost three of the previous four Premiership games and so the tie against Second tier Watford took on added significance with the print media vultures beginning to circle. The game was to typify Spurs under Ardiles with the policy seeming to be to just let both sides attack and see who could score the most! It couldn't have got off to a worse start for Tottenham with Watford getting their noses in front as early as the first minute with a goal from Craig Ramage! This was evened up shortly afterwards with a shot on the turn from the edge of the box by Darren Anderton. The stage was set for new Tottenham striker and superstar Jurgen Klinsmann appearing in his first English domestic cup tie. He didn't waste much time in making his mark and, before half time, he had scored a hattrick. The first was a classic turn and sprint towards the Watford goal with Klinsmann outpacing David Holdsworth before firing home. Klinsmann's second was a header from David Kerslake's cross and the hattrick goal came courtesy of a lovely run and backheel to Klinsmann by Ilie Dumitrescu which the German finished with aplomb. 1-4 to Tottenham at halftime and it looked to be all over but there were still four more goals to come!
Tommy Mooney scored another early goal for Watford after beating Sol Campbell who fell and seemed to think he was fouled when, in all honesty, it looked like a self inflicted tumble and, importantly, the referee thought so too. Shortly afterwards Teddy Sheringham restored Tottenham's three goal advantage latching onto a wonderful through ball from Danny Hill for their fifth of the evening. But still Watford kept coming and Spurs were somewhat fortunate not to have had keeper Ian Walker sent off when bringing down a Watford player for a stonewall penalty. The leniency shown by the referee looked like a punishment for Watford a minute later as Gary Parker proceeded to miss Watford's spot kick. Spurs got their sixth and final goal in the closing moments via their Romanian World Cup 94 star Ilie Dumitrescu. It was, and remains, the most goals that I have seen Spurs score away from home and when Watford scored their third, a Gary Mabbutt own goal, shortly before the end, the nine goals in the game became the most goals I have ever seen in a match involving Tottenham (subsequently equalled in a 4-5 home defeat to Arsenal in 2004 and the infamous 2-7 Champions League home defeat by Bayern Munich in 2019.
And this was just the first leg remember! Tottenham wouldn't have been Tottenham that season without contriving to lose the second leg at home a couple of weeks later by 2-3 to go through 8-6 on aggregate. It was all in vain however when they travelled to Meadow Lane to play another second tier side, Notts County, in the third round and were embarrassingly humbled 3-0 by a team that would go on to finish the season bottom of the First Division (now called the Championship) and be relegated. Liverpool won the Coca Cola (League) Cup that season beating Bolton Wanderers 2-1 in the Final at Wembley.
CRB Match No. 918
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