Today I'm going back 18 years to 2004 and Tottenham's end of season visit to Molineux, home of Wolverhampton Wanderers for a Premier League fixture played in front of 29,389 spectators.
Occasionally an end of season game will become a farewell match for a senior pro who has decided to call it a day following a long career. In this case the match represented a farewell to programme cover star Denis Irwin. When the finest fullbacks of the Premier League era are discussed, Irwin's name isn't necessarily one of the first to spring to mind but his levels of consistency and performance were such that Irwin was hugely respected and highly decorated. He began his career at Leeds United in the Second Division in 1983/84 before he was let go on a free transfer (!) to another Second Division side: Oldham Athletic where he would become an important component of Joe Royle's side. In 1990 the big time arrived in the form of a transfer to Manchester United and Irwin would go on to spend 12 seasons with the club winning a UEFA Champions League, seven Premier League titles, two FA Cups, a League Cup and other prizes besides. In 2002 Irwin joined Championship side Wolves and he would see the club promoted back to the Premier League at the end of his first season. All in all Irwin made 900 club appearances scoring 43 goals as well as being capped 56 times by the Republic of Ireland (scoring 4 goals).
The game proved to be a routine 2-0 win for Tottenham with their goals coming from Robbie Keane after 34 minutes and Jermain Defoe in the 67th minute. Tottenham gave a debut to 19-year old Mark Yeates who set up Robbie Keane's goal. It was to be one of only four first team appearances that he would make for the club before spending time with a host of other League clubs (12 in all) in a career that is ongoing. Today Yeates can be found still playing for non-League Bamber Bridge.
Wolves had only been promoted into the Premier League the previous season following victory over Sheffield United in the Play-Off Final to end a nineteen year absence from the top level. By the time of this match however, they had already been relegated back into the newly rebranded EFL Championship ending up bottom of the table albeit level on points with the other two relegated sides that season Leicester City and Leeds United. Spurs had a poor season themselves and could finish only fourteenth (out of 20) whilst being well clear of the relegated sides. Tottenham's caretaker-manager David Pleat had taken over the reigns from Glenn Hoddle in September following a disastrous start to the campaign and Jacques Santini would take the full-time Manager's role the following month. Champions were Arsenal's "Invincibles" side, so named because they went unbeaten in the League over the entire season.
CRB Match No. 1382
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