Spurs in History - 22nd April

22nd April, 1978

Spurs 2 Sunderland 3 (2nd Division)

It was getting very close for the three promotion spots out of the 2nd Division. Earlier in the season, Spurs had been sitting quite comfortably but now four teams, Bolton, Southampton, Brighton and Spurs were in pursuit of promotion.

In their two previous games Spurs had overcome Bolton at home but lost away to Brighton and were sitting in second place. However, this result put another dent in the Spurs' promotion bid and created additional anxiety and uncertainty among the players and the supporters.

Spurs had taken the lead within 30 seconds through Peter Taylor but Sunderland equalised before half time and went 3-1 up midway through the second half. Spurs tried to retrieve the situation and scored through John Duncan who was returning from injury, but it wasn’t enough.

The pressure was on with two games remaining.

Darren Anderton - former Spur

Darren Anderton Hat-trick

Former Spurs and England International, Darren Anderton.

With little to enjoy from Spurs' game against Sheffield United - after Jermaine Jenas' opening goal after two minutes, it all went downhill - there is time to acknowledge the hat-trick scored by former Spur, Darren Anderton.

Anderton signed for Bournemouth in the summer having been released by Wolves. He has been playing well for the 1st Division side who enjoyed a comfortable 5-0 home win over Leyton Orient.

This is Anderton's first hat-trick in 542 league games he scored in the 16th minute, curling a pass from Warren Cummings in from 20 yards. He added a second after the interval from a similar distance and completed his hat-trick by blasting home Steve Fletcher's knock-down from close range. It was a true hat-trick being the middle three goals scored consecutively in Bournemouth's win. Anderton also managed to get booked by the referee.

Darren Anderton was signed for Spurs by manager Terry Venables in the summer of 1992 for £1.75 million from Portsmouth for whom he had played a leading role in reaching the semi-finals of the FA Cup that season. He had a number of further FA Cup semi-final appearances for Spurs but never succeeded in reaching the Final of that competition.

During his career with Spurs, Anderton made 273 League appearances (+ 26 subs) scoring 34 goals. He made 56 appearances in the FA cup and League Cup, plus 3 subs, and scored 14 goals. He was a member of Spurs last victorious team, the 1999 Worthington Cup winners, defeating Leicester City 1-0 at Wembley in George Graham's first season as manager. Unfortunately, Anderton's time at Spurs was hampered with injury and he acquired the nickname, 'Sicknote.' The three seasons 1995 - 1998 saw him play only a limited part in Spurs' season making only 8, 15 and 16 appearances in those those years although he did manage to recover from injury in time to play for England in the European Championships in the summer of 1996.

Anderton was released by Spurs in the summer of 2004 when he signed for Birmingham City and a year later he joined Wolverhampton Wanderers who were managed at the time by Glenn Hoddle.

He made 30 International appearances for England, scoring 7 goals.

Included in the Bournemouth was former Spurs junior, full-back Neil Young who has served the south coast club for many years since leaving Tottenham. He is the older brother of Luke Young who plays for Charlton.

In the Orient team opposing Anderton was Anton Thelwell who made a number of Premiership appearances for Spurs before transferring to Hull City where he played under manager Peter Taylor, until his recent move back to London. Unfortunately for Thelwell, his time with Hull was interrupted by injury.

Spurs in History - 16th October

Jimmy Greaves

16th October, 1965

Spurs 5 Manchester United 1 (1st Division)

This game is remembered for the score line and also for the outstanding goal scored by Jimmy Greaves.  He picked the ball up inside the United half, ran at their defence,  going past a number of defenders before rounding the keeper to tap the ball into an empty net - a classic Greaves goal!

Spurs had won five of their six home games and drawn the other but they had lost the last three away games.  Pat Jennings replaced Bill Brown in goal for his first game of the season.

All five forwards scored that day – the other goals coming from Jimmy Robertson, Alan Gilzean, Eddie Clayton and Neil Johnson making only his third appearance.

Amazingly and unfortunately for Spurs, the return game in December also ended 5-1 to the home team.

Team: Jennings, Norman, Knowles, Mullery, Brown,L., Mackay, Johnson, Clayton, Gilzean, Greaves, Robertson.

16th October, 1976

A much less favourable result at Derby County in the season when Spurs unsuccessfully battled against relegation to play in the 2nd Division for the first time since 1949-50 season.

Derby County 8 Spurs 2 (1st Division)

In Keith Burkinshaw's first season as manager Spurs struggled from the very start.  With only two wins in the opening eight games, Spurs were facing a long, hard season.  Early season injuries to Pat Jennings and John Duncan, the previous season's top scorer, had disrupted the team and new signings Ian Moores and Peter Taylor were taking time to adjust to the team.  Spurs had lost the previous game at West Bromwich by four goals to two when Taylor scored on his debut.

Going into the game Derby's record for the season was subdued - they had not recorded a win and had five points having drawn five of their seven games, a point behind Spurs on six points from two wins and two draws.

However, Derby found their form in spectacular fashion in this game against Spurs.  Having gone two goals behind in the first half, Spurs rallied with a penalty from Keith Osgood and a goal from Captain Steve Perryman to be only 3-2 down at half-time and seemingly still in with a chance in the game.  However when Derby scored their fourth on the hour, the flood gates opened and Spurs conceded another four in the final half hour.

The Derby manager was former Spurs' star Dave Mackay.  Writing in his book, 'The Real Mackay,' he recalls how he felt sorry for Pat Jennings the only survivor from his time at Spurs.  As the goals kept going in, 'I really wanted them to stop.  Nobody likes to see a friend in discomfort.  Fortunately for me, Bill Nicholson was no longer at the helm because if he had been I would have felt very, very uncomfortable.'

This is not Spurs' record defeat but it was an indication of the difficulties Spurs were facing in that 1976-77 season.

Team: Jennings, Naylor, Osgood, Hoddle, Young, Pratt, Conn, Perryman, Moores, Jones, Taylor.