Today I'm going back 36 years to 1985 and Tottenham's home fixture against Ipswich Town at White Hart Lane played in front of 18.845 people.
The programme cover from the featured game shows the famous "Shelf" of the East Stand at Tottenham. This was how that side of the ground looked when I first started going to Tottenham. The Shelf was a huge covered terrace, the middle tier of the three tiered stand. Most Spurs fan would enter it at the top, from the rear after climbing a heck of a lot of stairs. Despite the crush barriers, the crowd on the shelf would ebb and flow as the action ebbed and flowed in front of them. We would sometimes find ourselves virtually picked up by the crowd to be deposited ten steps further forward before being shoved back to where we began. I never felt scared or unsafe at the time but, looking back, one wonders what would have happened if anyone had fallen down as the crowd surged. Mind you it was difficult to fall down when pinned on all sides. Nevertheless, being a fan on these kind of terraces is a young man's game and I wouldn't swap my seat for that sort of viewing experience these days!
In the featured game, Clive Allen scored the first goal after 20 minutes and Glen Hoddle made the game safe after 59 minutes with the second to give Spurs a 2-0 victory and three points to kick off their busy Christmas schedule.
Clive Allen would go on to have an astonishing season for Spurs in 1986/7. It was a season where he scored 49 goals in all competitions (33 in the League alone) and I think that I was present for the majority of them. I've not seen the likes of that before or since and that includes Harry Kane (although there's still time for Harry Kane). For such a successful goal scorer, Allen surprisingly found himself frequently shunted around from club to club. This was particularly so one summer when he transferred from QPR to Arsenal for £1.25 Million but never made a competitive appearance for the Gunners before moving on to Crystal Palace in a swap deal for Kenny Sansom. It was a close escape! In the League Allen made a total of 407 appearances scoring 194 goals and he was capped five times by England.
Season 1985/6 saw Tottenham finish in tenth place (in a 22 team league). Ipswich however were not so lucky and ended up in 20th position and were relegated by one point along with West Midlands duo Birmingham City and West Bromwich Albion. Champions that season were Liverpool as usual although there was to be no European competition the following season due to the role of Liverpool's supporters in the Heysel Stadium disaster. Liverpool achieved the League and FA Cup double that season for good measure.
CRB Match No. 413
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