Today I'm going back exactly a quarter of a century to 1997 and Tottenham's Coca Cola (League) Cup 2nd Round 1st Leg tie against Carlisle United at the old White Hart Lane. The game was attended by 19,255 spectators. In case you're wondering, the programme cover features a photograph of an aerial duel taken during the goalless draw at Highbury a couple of weeks earlier. Arsenal's Nigel Winterburn and Tottenham's Ruel Fox compete for the ball.
A trip to Carlisle United's Brunton Park has always felt like one of English football's exotic fixtures to me as I have lived in the West Midlands or the South East for most of my life. Carlisle has therefore always been a long journey for me and, as a result, I have always felt enormous respect for the long suffering supporters of Carlisle and the long journeys that they are obliged to make every other week if they wish to follow their team. Consider a midweek trip to Tottenham for instance. It's a journey of over 300 miles and so a 600+ mile round trip on a midweek night when you have work in the morning is unrealistic for most. Nevertheless, United were well supported on the night. Perhaps there's a major Cumbrian enclave somewhere in London that I don't know about?
Games between Tottenham and Carlisle are rare occurrences and this game was just the sixth between the clubs and the first ever in the League Cup. Carlisle had only parted company with popular manager Mervyn Day the previous week and so caretaker manager David Wilkes was in charge for the game. It wouldn't be long before Chairman Michael Knighton would take over the management and coaching of the first team squad however but the move failed and Carlisle were relegated back into League Division 3 at the end of the season.
After such a long journey, Carlisle supporters must have been somewhat gutted to go behind in the very first minute of the match when Neale Fenn tucked the ball home. It was to be the only goal that Fenn ever scored for Tottenham in the 10 appearances that he made for the club before moving on to Peterborough United and then to various clubs in the League of Ireland. The couple of thousand Cumbrians in attendance were not to be denied however when, five minutes before the break, good work on the right by Gareth McAlinden resulted in a cross which was swept home by Andy Couzens. Things got even better for Carlisle right on half time when Warren Aspinall scored their second past Ian Walker to give United a lead to take into the break.
Whatever it was that was said to the Tottenham players at half time wasn't said by manager Gerry Francis who was absent on the night. In the 73rd minute however, parity was restored as Ruel Fox turned sharply in the box to leave his marker stranded as he shot in at Tony Caig's near post. Five minutes later and sanity was restored as Tottenham took the lead once more with a goal from substitute Paul Mahorn following a pinpoint David Ginola cross. Funnily enough, as had been the case for Fenn, Mahorn's goal ended up being the only one that he ever scored for Spurs in six appearances for the club. Mahorn disappeared off the radar in early 1998 and made just 15 Football League appearances in total before moving into Non-League football.
So the match finished 3-2 in Tottenham's favour with the 2nd Leg still to come. There was to be no giant killing fairytale in Carlisle however as Spurs came out on top by 2-0 on the night for an overall 5-2 aggregate score line. Tottenham's League Cup odyssey wasn't to last much longer however as they crashed out at home to Derby County in the next Round. The 1998 League Cup Final was eventually contested by Chelsea and Middlesbrough with Chelsea coming out on top by 2-0 after extra time.
CRB Match No. 1130
Comments
Post a Comment