Today I'm going back 36 years to 1986 and Tottenham's 4th Round FA Cup tie against Notts County played at Meadow Lane on a cold winters afternoon in front of an attendance of 17,546. Watching the video (attached to my blog), it reminds me how much Meadow Lane has changed in the intervening years with all the stands having been replaced since this tie was played. (the stadium was more or less three sided at the time of this game). By the way, an interesting fact is that the record attendance at the original Meadow Lane ground was for a match against York City when 47,310 packed in for their FA Cup Quarter Final in 1955. Today's all seated capacity is just 18,816. If you do watch the video through to the end you will see County manager Jimmy Sirrell's hat which is a thing of beauty!
I can remember travelling up to Nottingham on the Spurs Supporters Club Special train with my girlfriend at the time, Mandy (I sure knew how to treat a girl eh?). Supporter Special trains seem to be a thing of the past these days, no doubt because the cost of hiring a non-scheduled train is prohibitive. I recall that whenever we caught such trains, they tended to have carriages which were, shall we say, just a little a bit "tired" (or vandalised if you prefer). By the end of the return journey such vandalism had often been added to. Happy days!
At the time, County were in the Third Division so the game was viewed as a potential banana skin for First Division Tottenham. Spurs, managed by Peter Shreeve, weren't helped when Graham Roberts put his back out on the morning of the game and was unable to play. Nevertheless, Spurs, wearing a strange all sky blue kit, went ahead early doors after just three minutes following a dreadful swing and a miss by Notts defender Dean Yates which put Clive Allen clean through on goal. He couldn't miss and didn't. However, within 20 minutes County were level when Ian McParland slotted home following Tottenham's own poor defending. Late on in the game, County had the ball in the Tottenham net for what looked like a sure fire winner but the goal was chalked off for alleged pushing in the build up. Looking at the video again today I'd say that Spurs were mighty fortunate to get away with that and were lucky to have the Replay four days later. Spurs would make no mistake in that Replay scoring five goals without reply. Sadly, all their effort was for nothing as they were knocked out of the Cup in the next round by 2-1 at home to Everton who, themselves would go all the way to the Final that season before succumbing to York City's conquerors Liverpool.
The programme cover star is Notts County's stalwart defender Tristan Benjamin who played for County from 1974 until 1987. Meanwhile, winger John Chiedozie, who came on as a substitute for Spurs in this game, was of interest to the County fans as he'd previous played for the club. Chiedozie arrived at County from his first club, Orient (now called Leyton Orient) and joined Spurs from County. His career was blighted by injury but he managed a total of 319 Football League appearances scoring 47 goals. John was born in Nigeria and was a Nigerian international (9 appearances, 2 goals), receiving the honour of Officer of the Order of Niger from the President of Nigeria for his services to Nigerian football.
CRB Match No. 420
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