Spurs in History - 18th February

18th February, 1959

Norwich City 1 Spurs 0 FA Cup 5th Round Replay

For the third time in five seasons, Spurs were the victims of the FA cup giant-killers in the 5th Round of the FA Cup.

In 1955 they had fallen to York City who were in the 3rd Division(North). Spurs lost 1-3 at York who went on to reach the semi-final, only to lose in a replay to Newcastle United, the eventual Cup winners.

In 1957 Bournemouth caused them problems defeating them by a similar score. Bournemouth, in the 3rd Division, were managed by former Spur, Freddie Cox, and they countered everything that Spurs could offer. The south coast club had defeated Wolves in the previous round but lost art home to Manchester United in the next round.

This time, in 1959, Spurs must have expected to progress to the next Round when they drawn at home to 3rd Division Norwich who were the season’s giant-killers. Norwich had defeated Manchester United and Cardiff but no one expected them to win at Tottenham. They didn’t although they nearly did! Having taken the lead in the second half Spurs equalised through Cliff Jones with 40 seconds remaining.

In the replay Spurs started brightly but a fanatical home crowd urged on Norwich who scored the only goal in the 63rd minute for a deserved victory. Norwich progressed to the semi-final that year.