Today I'm going back 31 years to 1991 and Tottenham's League Division One fixture against Everton at White Hart Lane with an attendance of just 21,635.
The cover of the programme celebrates the fact that this was the first home game since Spurs had beaten Arsenal 3-1 at Wembley in the first FA Cup Semi-Final to have been played at the home of the FA Cup Final. Gazza's unforgettable long range free-kick goal in that game was possibly the greatest free-kick goal ever scored at the old Wembley. The cover stars in this case are Steve Sedgley who is playing a supporting role to Justin Edinburgh's look of sheer joy. It's a great photograph isn't it?
Despite being born in the Tottenham heartland of Enfield, Steve Sedgley began his professional career at Coventry City. He has two FA Cup winners medals to his name although the first was won as an unused substitute for Coventry against Spurs in the 1987 Final. His second winners medal came in 1991, this time for Spurs. It took a £750,000 fee to bring Sedgley to White Hart Lane in 1989 and he went on to make 164 League appearances for Spurs scoring eight goals before moving on to Ipswich Town in 1994. He would make over a century of appearances for the Tractor Boys before finishing his career at Wolverhampton Wanderers. Overall he made 459 League appearances scoring 35 goals.
Sadly, as was the case for much of the season, Spurs were without Paul Gascoigne for the game against Everton, with Gazza seemingly only able to raise himself from his sick bed for FA Cup ties. They soon found themselves a goal behind to the visitors after a header by ex-Arsenal player Martin Keown hit the bar with the rebound being tucked home by Pat Nevin. Spurs quickly hit back with their equaliser being headed home past Neville Southall by Paul Allen following fine work by that man Edinburgh for a score line of 1-1 at halftime. Straight after the break Everton had the lead again thanks to an own goal by Paul Stewart who was, rather ironically, suffering from the striker's dreaded goal drought at the time. This effort wasn't the goal that he would have wanted! Back came Spurs and, on 64 minutes, a rare volleyed goal from a corner by skipper Gary Mabbutt restored parity. When Everton took the lead for the third and final time in the match we thought that Spurs were surely done for. This time the goal was scored by Tony Cottee reacting first to a shot from Andy Hinchcliffe which Spurs goalkeeper Eric Thorstvedt could only push onto the crossbar. However we reckoned without Nayim and the Spurs midfielder curled in a late equaliser to ensure that the spoils were shared. 3-3 and what a goal feast it was!
Everton had sacked Colin Harvey the previous October and brought back Howard Kendall in the hope that he could restore the club's recent former glories under his tenure. Everton ended the season in ninth place as Kendall rather reinforced the old adage that "you should never go back" to an old club and were not the force that they had been under Kendall's first spell in charge. However ninth place was one better than Tottenham managed, disappointing their fans after a good start that saw them unbeaten until November. The season was to end in glory for Spurs however in the form of an FA Cup win (31 years ago and still Tottenham's latest FA Cup win!). Following the end of the season Spurs were taken over by Alan Sugar who cleared the club's debts and installed Terry Venables as the Chief Executive. Turbulent times were just around the corner for Spurs.
CRB Match No. 718
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