Today I'm going back 32 years to 1989 and Tottenham's home game against the dreaded Gooners at a sold out White Hart Lane in the First Division.
These were pre-Premier League days, back in times when dinosaurs still roamed the earth (Gosh I'm so old!). Spurs had lost the previous five league games against Arsenal and a win for the Gunners would have taken them top of the table. The groundsman at White Hart Lane had obviously been taking acid judging by the circular patterns made by the mowers but it was Arsenal who went all googly eyed when going behind to a deflected Vinny Samways goal that flew past John Lukic from distance after 34 minutes. Before the first half was finished Spurs were two-up, this time through a flicked header by Paul Walsh from a Paul Gascoigne free kick. Early in the second half we had the sight of programme cover star Gary Lineker clutching his "crown jewels" after taking the sting out of a full blooded Arsenal free kick. These things are always rather amusing unless it happens to you! "Count 'em" shouted a wag in the crowd. Michael Thomas pulled a goal back for Arsenal a few minutes later in a scramble following a corner but it proved, thankfully, not to be enough . Lineker in particular had chances to make the game safe but he couldn't take them as Terry Venables' Spurs finished on top irrespective.
Vinny Samways never seemed to win over the fans at Tottenham. I've always felt that Spurs fans would take against certain players whom they deemed to be "not good enough" to wear the shirt and, no matter what they did on the field, they'd never receive the credit that they deserved. I didn't hear too much grumbling at this game about Samways but it was soon back the next time he put in an average performance. In total Samways had eight years at Tottenham for whom he made 193 League appearances (scoring 11 goals) before being transferred to Everton. Samways subsequently found his niche playing on Spanish football playing for the Canary Islands side Las Palmas (sounds idyllic doesn't it?) where he made 160 League appearances.
Spurs finished one of their better league seasons in third spot albeit 16 points behind Champions Liverpool and 7 points behind second placed Aston Villa. Arsenal finished nowhere (well fourth and, importantly, behind Spurs). This was the season where qualification for European places for English clubs started to be permitted again by UEFA following the ban post-Heysel and as a result Aston Villa qualified for the UEFA Cup and Manchester United for the European Cup Winners Cup. Champions Liverpool were not allowed to enter the following season's European Cup however and League Cup winners Nottingham Forest were unable to enter the UEFA Cup as England had only one spot in that competition which went to second placed Villa.
CRB Match No. 627
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