[Lord Snooty]

Tottenham Hotspur v Huddersfield Town
The Premier League
Saturday March 3rd - 15:00 ko
at Wembley Stadium

Huddersfield Town return to Wembley Stadium, to take on Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League. Spurs have already played twice this week since we played on Saturday, a league match at Palace on Sunday and then a cup replay at home to Rochdale on Wednesday and despite the best efforts of secret agent VAR, the Rochdale boys couldn't force them to play an extra 30 minutes.
Never mind, we go down there full of confidence and on a run of two consecutive Premier League victories.


A brief history of Tottenham Hotspur: Well before I start, the main thing you all need to know is that Huddersfield Town have THREE league titles and Spurs have only TWO. In real terms, it doesn't matter what else they've won. It's like on the Olympic medal table, it's the Golds that count, not how many silvers and bronzes you have. League titles are the gold medal of English football.

Normal history section will now commence.......              

Founded in 1882 as Hotspur Football Club by members of Hotspur Cricket Club to give theirselves summat to do in the winter. They were renamed as Tottenham Hotspur a couple of years later. Entered the Southern League in 1896 and became the only team from outside the Football League to win the FA Cup since the formation of the FL when they beat Sheffield Utd 3-1 in 1901.
Despite this success, it was another 7 years before they were elected into the FL, joining Division 2 and won promotion to Division 1 in their first season. They finished bottom of the division in the season before league football was suspended for the war but weren't officially relegated until the league started up again in 1919, controversially being replaced by The Arsenal. They came straight back up again as champions, 6 points ahead of runners up Huddersfield Town. They won the FA Cup again in 1921, beating Wolves 2-1 in the final, finished runners up in the League behind Liverpool in 1922, but were relegated again in 1928 and spent most of the rest of the pre 2nd world war years in the 2nd division.
After the war, under the management of Arthur Rowe, they won the 2nd division title in 1950 and followed that in the next season by winning the first of their two First Division League titles. Bill Nicholson became Spurs' manager in 1958 and he went on to become the most successful manager in their history. They won the double in 1961, the first team to do so in the 20th century. This consisted of their second League title, finishing 8 points ahead of Sheffield Wednesday and then the FA Cup where they beat Leicester City 2-0 in the final with goals from Bobby Smith and Terry Dyson. They won the Cup again in the next season, beating Burnley 3-1 in the final, goals coming from Jimmy Greaves, Smith again and Danny Blanchflower. They followed that up by winning their first European title, the European Cup Winners Cup, beating Atlético Madrid 5-1 in the final in Rotterdam, with two goals apiece from Greaves and Dyson and one from John White. They won the FA Cup again in 1967 (2-1 v Chelsea), the UEFA Cup in 1972, beating Wolves, yes Wolverhampton Wanderers, in the final over 2 legs, and 2 League Cups (2-0 v Villa in 1971 and 1-0 v Norwich in 1973).
Nicholson left the club in 1974 and the club went on a decline, getting relegated in 1977. Manager Keith Burkinshaw was kept on though and rebuilt the side, moulding a team around new superstar Glenn Hoddle and bringing Argentinian World Cup winners Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricardo Villa over at a time when foreign stars weren't as common as they are today. They won another couple of FA Cups, v Man City after a replay in 1981 and v QPR in 1982 again after a replay. In 1984 they won the UEFA Cup again, winning a 2 legged final against Anderlecht after a penalty shootout in which future Halifax Town manager Tony Parks saved the crucial penalty. They won the FA Cup again in 1991, beating Nottingham Forest 2-1 in the final famous for Paul Gascoigne getting himself injured. Goals for Spurs that day were from Paul Stewart and a Des Walker own goal.
That was their last FA Cup win to date, their 8th, and the only trophies they have won since are two League Cups. Those were in 1999, a last minute Allan Nielsen goal beating Leicester 1-0 and then in 2008 against Chelsea with goals from Dimitar Berbatov (pen) and Leeds thug Jonathan Woodgate.
So although Spurs are considered to be one of the Premier League's BIG SIX, they have won only one trophy this century. Not that big really are they?

Head to Head



Town lead in the overall head to head with 16 wins to Tottenham's 12, with 13 draws.



Our first meetings came way back in 1919/20, our crisis cum triumph season. Spurs won the old 2nd division and we came runners up. We drew 1-1 at Leeds Road and then Spurs won 2-0 at White Hart Lane. The next few seasons saw some low scoring games, 1-0's and 1-1's, until a bizarre 5-5 draw in 1925. We beat Spurs 6-1 on route to the FA Cup final in 1928. Billy Smith scoring twice and George Brown four times.
The two clubs lost touch when Town got relegated in 1956, met again for those two seasons in the 1970s when we had three 1-1 draws and a 4-1 Spurs win. The following season we met again at White Hart Lane when Spurs knocked us out of the League Cup. And that was our last meeting before the match at our place earlier this season, which we'll gloss over for now.  


Town's Wembley Record: Well we haven't played at White Hart Lane since 1972 and of course we won't be doing it again as the Spurs have moved into Wembley for a season while the Lane gets tarted up. So what better way to commemorate this by looking back at Town's trips to the national stadium since it was built way back in 1923.

1928 FA Cup Final - lost 1-3 v Blackburn Rovers
1930 FA Cup Final - lost 0-2 v Arsenal
1938 FA Cup Final - lost 0-1 (aet) v Preston North End
1994 Autoglass Trophy Final - lost on pens v Swansea City (FT 1-1 aet)
1995 Play Off Final - won 2-1 v Bristol Rovers
2012 Play Off Final - won on pens v Sheffield Utd (FT 0-0)
2017 Play Off Final - won on pens v Reading (FT 0-0)

So there's no chance of a penalty shoot out in this match with Tottenham Hotspur, so we ought to try and win it over 90 minutes. In the 7 matches we have played there, we have only scored 4 goals. Alex Jackson scored the first, then Richard Logan got the 2nd, 66 years later. Then twice in a match, Andy Booth and then Chris Billy scoring our last goal to date at Wembley Stadium. Of course we do have some names who have gone down in Huddersfield Town legend. Names like Alex Smithies, Danny Ward and of course, one superb German by the name of Christopher Schindler.

So what's happening at White Hart Lane?  Managed nowadays by Mauricio Pochettino, who was a centre back during his playing career, a career that took in stints with Newell's Old Boys, Espanyol, Paris Saint-Germain and Bordeaux. He gained 20 caps for Argentina, most famously falling foul of the nimble feet of Michael Owen and giving away a penalty in the 2002 World Cup, which David Beckham converted to give England a 1-0 win. Well, let's be honest. It was a dive, wasn't it? So impressed was the young Argie, that he vowed that day to make the players under his command when he eventually became a manager, to be the best divers in the world. Unfortunately for him, Dele Alli is utterly shite at it.  
He managed Espanyol, before coming to England to manage Southampton and then to Spurs in 2014.

Club Connections: There is one member of Town's squad who has played for Spurs in the past  and that is our new record signing, Alex Pritchard. He joined the Tottenham youth set up after being originally with West Ham's academy. His first professional appearances were on loan at Peterborough on loan in 2013. The last of his 6 games for the PishPosh was away at Crystal Palace on the day that us and Barnsley played out a draw to make sure they got relegated from the Championship. Lol!
The following season he went on loan to League One Swindon and made his debut for them against the recently relegated Pish. He made 44 appearances for Swindon that season and when the League One season had finished he returned to Tottenham and made his Premier League debut from the bench in their last game of the season, coming on as an 83rd minute substitute in a 3-0 win over Aston Villa.
The next season he was out on loan again and this time he came to our notice for the first time. The loan was a season long one at Brentford. He played in both league matches against us and scored one of the goals at Griffin Park as the Bees stung us by 4 goals to 1. At the end of the season he was named their player of the season and made it into the England u21 team.
He had another 5 minutes on the pitch in a Spurs shirt at the start of the next season before being sent out for some more Premier League experience at West Brom. That wasn't a big success though and he was limited to 3 sub appearances.
Despite this, Norwich City decided that he was definitely good enough for the Championship and forked out a reported £8m to take him to Carrow Road. He made 35 appearances for the Canaries last season, including the 3-0 pasting at the John Smith's. Oddly, the game after that, he scored twice in a 7-1 win over Reading. This season he made 9 appearances for them, missing most of the campaign with a knee injury. His last game was a 0-0 draw in the FA Cup against Chelsea and then he finally made it. Six days later, he was unveiled as a Huddersfield Town player, in the Premier League.

Town legend, Andy Booth had a month's loan at White Hart Lane back in 2001 when he was a Wendy player. David Pleat, who had signed him from Town for Wendy, was director of football or summat at Spurs at the time and in his month down there he played 4 games but didn't score.

Andy Turner was at one time the Premier League's youngest scorer, scoring for Spurs as a 17 year old against Everton. He had a loan with us in 1995, playing 5 times and scoring once in a 4-1 win at home to West Brom.

Neil McNab played 72 times for Spurs in the 1970s and then 11 times for us in the 1990s on loan from Tranmere Rovers. In between those times he scored against us as a Man City player. He was the one that didn't score a hat trick.

Charlie Wilson of the all conquering Town side of the 1920s played for Spurs before coming to Leeds Road in 1922. His games to goal ratio is one of the best ever at the club, scoring 57 times in 99 games. He won two league titles with Town before moving on to Stoke without completing the treble. Before that he had won the 2nd division with Spurs. His career total ended up at 196 goals in 310 games.

And then of course there was the manager who brought Wilson to Huddersfield, Town and Arsenal legend Herbert Chapman himself. Most famous as a manager, he played 2 seasons at Tottenham from 1905 to 07, when they were still non league.

Recent form: Town are 14th in the Premier League with 30 points. Spurs are in 4th with 55 points.  

Last 6 matches:

Town 0-3 Liverpool
Man Utd 2-0 Town
Birmingham 1-4 Town (FA Cup) (Roberts og, Mounie, van La Parra, Ince)
Town 4-1 Bournemouth (Pritchard, Mounie 2, Van la Parra pen)
Town 0-2 Man Utd (FA Cup)
West Brom 1-2 Town (van La Parra, Mounie)

Spurs 2-0 Newport (FA Cup) (Butler og, Lamela)
Spurs 1-0 Arsenal (Kane)
Juventus 2-2 Spurs (CL) (Kane, Eriksen)
Rochdale 2-2 Spurs (FA Cup) (Lucas Moura, Kane pen)
Palace 0-1 Spurs (Kane)
Spurs 6-1 Rochdale (FA Cup) (Son Heung-min 2, Llorente 3, Walker-Peters)


Tottenham's line up at Palace on Sunday:

1 Lloris
24 Aurier
6 Sánchez
15 Dier
33 Davies
12 Wanyama
19 Dembélé
23 Eriksen
20 Alli
11 Lamela
10 Kane

Substitutes
2 Trippier
3 Rose
7 Son Heung-min
13 Vorm
17 Sissoko
21 Foyth
27 Lucas Moura

[St Charles Owl]

A brief history of Tottenham Hotspur.  Well before I start, the main thing you all need to know is that Huddersfield Town have THREE league titles and Spurs have only TWO. In real terms, it doesn't matter what else they've won. It's like on the Olympic medal table, it's the Golds that count, not how many silvers and bronzes you have. League titles are the gold medal of English football.

Cracking thread M'Lord as per usual.

Just got to pull you up on one technicality.  Over here the Olympic Medal tables are actually in order of the total medal count and the Gold medals are only used in the event of a total medal count tie.  So on that basis you have the following:

Spurs
2 League titles
8 FA Cups
4 League Cups
1 UEFA Cup Winners Cup
2 UEFA/Europa Cups
17 Total

Huddersfield
3 League Titles
1 FA Cup
1 Yorkshire Electricity Cup  
5 Total

But then again these damn Yanks can't spell half the words in the English Language, so screw them, we will go with your version!!!!!

[Lord Snooty]

Yorkshire Electricity Cup.

[jjamez]

If we can crock kane and eriksen we may have a chance

[Amelia Chaffinch]

According to Twitter, Mooy may be fit.

[Lord Snooty]

According to Twitter, Mooy may be fit.

Can't see Wagz rushing him back though.

[theo_luddite]

Another reet riveting read M'lud. I'll do it proper justice on the train journey to that there Larndan Tarn tomorrow. Is that Gazza in the first team photo in the thread? Second left back row? Bit of bog paper stuck on his face where he cut himself shaving that morning?

[sloppyattheback]

If we face this game as per the last 2 league games I think we can earn ourselves a meritable 2-3 to 1 loss.

They will want to put us to bed early and sub their big guns for the European game next week.

Waggers also could tinker put in a fringe team almost as this is not on our radar to obtain survival points but I dont want to see a 4-5-6+ to nil drubbing.

Not sold out but not far off, a lot of expense with the early ST renewals being blamed, as well as having been to Wembley in May ( seriously ?) I read elsewhere now the weather will make travel from those outlaying areas difficult to get coaches or trains.

Training it from Tammy in the morn early and back sharpish so I apologise now I cant stay behind to do the finger wiggling thing when we stuff 'em.

It will be cold, spent 3 days in Londinium this week and it was ices with that breeze

[ToonTerrier]

The prediction machine that had us getting hammered every game this season now has us staying up. Could be a curse, a decent read here nonetheless:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/43202293

[jjamez]

Gonna be a long cold slog. They have a big game around the corner too so the likes of kane and eriksen ideally won't be wanting to play the full 90. Like has been said we have a free go here