Today I'm going back 34 years to 1987 and Tottenham's visit to the Baseball Ground to play a First Division fixture against Derby County.
The Baseball Ground was one of the old guard of traditional football stadia. It opened in 1890 and was initially home to the Derby Baseball Club until 1898. Football moved into the Baseball Ground in 1895 however in the form of Derby County and they ended up playing there until 1997 when they moved on to their brand new stadium at Pride Park. County's reserve and junior sides continued to use the Baseball Ground until 2003 when it was finally closed and demolished. At its height the Baseball Ground could accommodate 42,000 supporters and the attendance record at the ground of 41,826 was set in 1969, coincidentally in a match against Spurs. The late 60's and early 70's proved to be something of a golden era for Derby County with promotion from Division 2 being followed up by the League Championship in 1972 (both under Brian Clough) and again in 1975 (under Dave Mackay's management).
The featured game was played on a Sunday as it was featured live on ITV's Big Match Live. Viewers watched first blood go to the Rams (Derby's sheepish nickname) and a goal smashed home from close range by future manager and programme cover star John Gregory (he's the chef serving turkey to his team mates). It was 1-0 at half time but Spurs scored after the break through Nico Claesen and then, just as we thought the game was heading for a draw, Spurs caught Derby on the break. Following good work by Paul Moran on the right wing, he squared for Clive Allen to stab home the winner. Allen celebrated with a knee slide back in the days when knee slides weren't really the ubiquitous goal celebration that they have become.
Nico Claesen was a Belgian international (36 appearances and 12 goals) who was something of a bit part player at Tottenham. He tended to be on the fringes of the first team and frequently found himself coming on as a substitute. In all he played just 50 League games for Spurs scoring a respectable 18 goals. Claesen's club career was mainly played in Belgium and he made appearances for Royal Antwerp and Standard Liege amongst others. He finally hung up his boots in 2000.
Spurs finished their rather modest 1987/8 season in 13th position (in a 21 team Division) only five points clear of the relegation positions. Derby finished two places further down in 15th but also survived the dreaded drop by just one point. There were four teams relegated that season including Chelsea! Liverpool were Champions as usual but were excluded from European competition the following season due to the ongoing ban following the Heysel disaster.
CRB Match No. 535
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