Today I'm going back 29 years to 1993 and Tottenham's Premier League fixture against QPR played at White Hart Lane in front of 32,341.
The programme cover star today is Justin Edinburgh seen here hitching a ride on co-star Neil "Razor" Ruddock. Justin Edinburgh joined Spurs from Southend United and played as a left back between 1990-2000, making 213 top-flight appearances and scoring a solitary goal. Edniburgh won the FA Cup with Spurs in 1991 but was arguably more successful as a highly respected manager with a variety of lower league and non-league clubs including Newport County and Leyton Orient, both of whom he took from non-league football back into the Football League. Tragically, in June 2019, Edinburgh had a sudden heart attack and died five days later aged just 49.
Neil Ruddock can surely be described as one of the game's characters. A beast of a man, he made his League debut for Spurs in 1986/7 season breaking his leg in the match against Liverpool. He made eleven appearances for Spurs before leaving to join Millwall where he made just six appearances before being snapped up by Southampton. 138 appearances for the Saints showed Spurs that they had made a mistake in letting him go and, for the featured season 1992/3, Ruddock returned and made 47 further appearances before surprising many by signing for Liverpool. Liverpool at the time were just past their very best and Ruddock did not seem to be a Liverpool kind of player but he stayed there for five seasons (the longest spell of his career), making 152 appearances before leaving for West Ham United. Ruddock was a one cap wonder for England making his solitary appearance against Nigeria under the management of Terry Venables. In all Ruddock made 466 club appearances scoring 42 goals and if you like your centre-backs roughty toughty and a little Desperate Dan-like then Ruddock's your man. Since finishing his playing career and despite being declared bankrupt, Ruddock and his blokey persona have remained in the TV limelight featuring in shows such as "I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here" and "Masterchef".
This was one of those games where Spurs scared the living daylights out of their own supporters by almost throwing away a comfortable home win. It was 2-0 at half time thanks to two goals from Teddy Sheringham and, when Darren Anderton made it 3-0 in the 61st minute, the result looked to be a foregone conclusion. Indeed it still looked that way right up until the 87th minute when first Darren Peacock and then, a minute later, Devon White scored to give QPR real hope of a point. Thankfully, jittery Spurs managed to hold out for the last two minutes plus added time to win the game 3-2 and to take Spurs level on points with QPR.
This was the inaugural season of the Premier League and Spurs finished eighth in the table with QPR four points ahead of them in fifth position (yes really). Champions that season were Manchester United with Crystal Palace, Middlesbrough and Nottingham Forest being relegated.
CRB Match No. 821
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