20th April - Spurs in History

20th April, 1901

Sheffield United 2 Spurs 2 FA Cup Final at Crystal Palace

Tottenham Hotspur, the non-League Giant Killers playing in the Southern League, had reached the Final but no-one expected them to win again as no non-League team had won the FA Cup since the formation of the Football League.

An attendance of 114,815 watched as Spurs took on the experienced League team who took the lead after twelve minutes. Spurs equalised through Sandy Brown, thirteen minutes later and he put them ahead five minutes after half time. However, a dubious refereeing decision gave United an equaliser one minute later. Clawley, the Spurs goalkeeper, fumbled a shot but when challenged managed to scramble it clear for a corner as signalled by the linesman. However, the referee awarded the goal that never was. From this point the game drifted to a draw and a replay. Two nights after the Replay, cinematic newsreel shots showed that the ball had not crossed the line and the United equaliser should not have counted.

The Replay was arranged for Bolton a week later.



20th April, 2005

Spurs 1 West Bromwich Albion 1

Spurs were hoping for a place in the UEFA Cup and West Brom were fighting against relegation. Spurs had drawn at The Hawthorns at the start of the season and also in the Cup but had won the replay at White Hart Lane. West Brom took a first half lead and although Robbie Keane scored the equaliser early in the second half, Spurs were unable to push on for the three points that would have helped their search for Europe. However, the point helped West Brom in their successful relegation struggle which went to the final day of the season.

20th April, 2002

Bolton Wanderers 1 Spurs 1

A Steffan Iversen goal gave Spurs a point in this game.

20th April, 1999

Charlton Athletic 1 Spurs 4

Spurs last win on this day came at The Valley in front of 20,000 spectators. Spurs goals were scored by Iversen, Campbell, Dominguez and Ginola.

This was the highlight of the closing weeks of the season as they lost four of the remaining five games. However, the season had seen the team win the Worthington Cup and they were assured of UEFA Cup football for the following season.

20th April, 1962

Spurs 4 Blackburn Rovers 1

Jimmy Greaves scored Spurs' third goal against Blackburn which brought him a new club record of scoring in his 9th consecutive game. The run had started against Bolton at the end of February and in total he had scored eleven goals in that period. He failed to score in the next game but managed to score in the final three games of the season and also on the opening day of the next season. This was Jimmy's first season with Spurs - he made his debut, scoring a hat-trick against Blackpool on 16th December. By the end of the season had scored 21 League goals from 22 games and 9 FA Cup goals from 7 games.

The other goals against Blackburn were scored by Terry Medwin, Bobby Smith and Cliff Jones.