Today I'm going back 41 years to 1982 and Tottenham's home fixture in the First Division against Sunderland played at White Hart Lane in front of 39,898 spectators.
The programme cover shows match action from Villa Park, Birmingham during Tottenham's recent victorious FA Cup Semi-Final against Leicester City. Spurs were the holders of the FA Cup that season having beaten Manchester City in that classic Final the previous year and they were destined to reach and then win the Final again in 1982, once again after a Replay this time against Queens Park Rangers at Wembley. Sporting an unusual kit combination (for Spurs) involving yellow socks is the airborne Paul ("Max") Miller for whom a high boot was clearly nothing to fear. I imagine that Spurs wore yellow socks in that Semi-Final to avoid a clash with Leicester's white hosiery.
I have to admit defeat when it comes to finding footage from the featured match on Youtube and, looking back from today's vantage point, it's quite hard to believe that the TV cameras were not present at every top flight game back in the 1980's. Armchair viewers therefore missed Tottenham's two goal halftime lead scored courtesy of Glenn Hoddle and Tony Galvin and then Sunderland's battling second half comeback with goals from Gary Rowell (penalty) and Nick Pickering.
I always copy my blog updates into Facebook as there is a different audience for my ramblings there and I have always made a habit of name checking Facebook friends who I know also attended the game concerned. When it comes to posting Tottenham games, it is a very rare day indeed when my friend Pieman wasn't in attendance at the game in question. Sadly Pieman passed away last year but I shall continue to remember him through my blog and I tip my hat to him for his extraordinary record of attending Spurs games (2,676 Tottenham first team matches attended). Pieman was also a Groundhopper who visited 791 different grounds and wrote about them all in his marvelous blog Pie and Mushy Peas (go take a look). Rest in peace my friend!
Season 1981/82 was a successful one by Tottenham's standards with both the FA Cup and a share of the Charity Shield to put in their trophy cabinet. Spurs only just missed out on further glory when losing to Liverpool in that season's League Cup Final and went out to eventual winners Barcelona at the Semi-Final stage of the European Cup Winners' Cup. In the league Spurs finished 4th behind champions Liverpool, runners up Ipswich Town and 3rd placed Manchester United. Importantly in the North London pecking order (pecking is what cockerels do after all), Tottenham's 4th place eclipsed Arsenal's 5th place on goal difference. Sunderland did not have such a happy season despite their point secured at White Hart Lane that day but did end the season with their heads just above the relegation line in 19th place (of 22) with Leeds United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Middlesbrough being the unfortunate sides to go down.
CRB Match No. 170
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