Blocking his way to regular first team football for most of this period was Pat Jennings, Northern Ireland international and one of the best goalkeepers in the world at the time, but Daines was obviously not too concerned at his lack of opportunities, otherwise he would surely have moved on to try and improve his chances of regular first team football.  After all, there were not many clubs where he would have had to compete for the goalkeeper’s jersey with a full international.  He seemed quite content to make the odd appearance for the first team, deputising when the Irishman was out with an injury, before returning to the delights of the Football Combination once Jennings was fit again.

Unfortunately for Daines, Jennings was seldom injured.  Initially, after turning professional, Daines wasn’t even second choice for Tottenham, as that honour went to Ken Hancock, and it wasn’t until November 1971 that Barry Daines made his league debut for us, in a 3-2 White Hart Lane win over West Bromwich Albion.  Jennings returned for the following match and Daines didn’t appear again until the following November when, ironically, he kept goal in the home game against West Bromwich Albion, Martin Chivers scoring for us in a 1-1 draw.

Over the next few seasons there were only occasional first team opportunities for Daines, as Jennings continued to rack up more and more games, eventually breaking Ted Ditchburn’s record of 418 league appearances during the 1975-6 season.  Barry did, however, manage five consecutive first team appearances during 1973-4 and the keeper seemed happy enough at Spurs and was a reliable, yet unspectacular understudy to Pat Jennings.

In the 1976-7 campaign Pat Jennings eventually suffered a serious injury, to his ankle, and Daines managed nineteen league appearances, by far his best to date.  At the end of that season Tottenham were relegated, having finished bottom of Division One.  More significantly for Daines, during the summer of 1977 Tottenham manager Keith Burkinshaw inexplicably released Jennings and if that wasn’t bad enough, the Irishman joined hated local rivals Arsenal.  If Burkinshaw had thought that Jennings was nearing the end of his career, he was very much mistaken as nine years later Pat Jennings was still good enough to play for Northern Ireland in the 1986 World Cup Finals.

So, Barry Daines, having shown remarkable patience during his eight years as a professional with Spurs, finally got the opportunity to establish himself as regular first choice goalkeeper, a role Keith Burkinshaw obviously thought he could fill, as the manager didn’t go out and buy a replacement for Jennings.  Daines played in all 42 league games during the 1977-8 season as we gained promotion from the Second Division at the first attempt, thanks to a 0-0 draw at Southampton on the final day of the season.  Of course, we had been spoiled by the towering presence of Pat Jennings in the Tottenham goal for many seasons, so Barry certainly had a lot to live up to.  The overriding memory of Daines from 1977-8 however was not a glorious save, it was his horrendous error up at Mansfield when he raced out of his area to make a clearance, only to miss the ball.  The end result saw the ball in the back of our net.  Unfortunately for Barry, the ITV cameras were at Field Mill that day and the following afternoon our goalkeeper’s clanger was shown on The Big Match. 

Back in the First Division, Spurs, now with their two new Argentinian signings, Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricardo Villa (and not forgetting the third major signing of that summer, defender John Lacy) got off to a poor start.  Daines had to pick the ball out of his net four times during the opening home game of the season against Aston Villa and worse was to come when Liverpool put seven past him at Anfield at the start of September.  Having played in the opening twelve league games, Daines was out for a spell injured, during which time his place in the first team went to Mark Kendall.   Spurs also signed another goalkeeper, Milija Aleksic, who joined from Luton Town and Barry only played twice more during the 1978-9 season.

Spurs now had three goalkeepers, none of whom could be described as outstanding.  Daines was first choice the following season, making 32 league appearances and he would have made more had it not been for a injury which forced him off during a game at Leeds and kept him out of the side for several matches.  Mark Kendall started the 1980-1 season in goal, but after four games Daines was back.  Kendall was a poor keeper, certainly not up to being a regular between the sticks in the First Division and with Milija Aleksic failing to force his way into the first team on a regular basis, it was Barry Daines who was Keith Burkinshaw’s first choice for most of the season.  However, in March 1981, an injury to Daines gave Milija Aleksic a run in the first team.

Although a fit-again Daines returned to the side before the end of the league season, Aleksic was selected ahead of him to keep goal for Spurs in the FA Cup Final against Manchester City and played in both the first match and the replay.  If that blow wasn’t bad enough for Barry, that summer Spurs signed Ray Clemence from Liverpool.

It was obvious that Barry Daines was finished at White Hart Lane and he left the club to go and play in Hong Kong.   After over ten years as a professional at Tottenham, he hadn’t managed to reach 150 league appearances and after having bided his time for years, when Daines finally got his chance, he just wasn’t up to becoming the long-term replacement for Pat Jennings.  It was only really the fact that his rivals, post-Jennings, for the goalkeeper’s shirt at Tottenham were not much of a threat to him (Kendall was basically fat and useless, whilst Aleksic was very injury-prone) that enabled Daines to make the number of appearances that he did. 

Barry Daines made his final appearance for us in a 1-0 defeat at Wolves in April 1981.  The Jennings-Daines situation was soon to be repeated.  England international Ray Clemence was Tottenham’s first choice goalkeeper as soon as he arrived at the club in 1981.  Fellow keeper Tony Parks, having come up through the ranks and turned professional in September 1980, waited patiently for first team opportunities and Parks was still there in 1987 when Ray Clemence was forced to retire through injury but, like Daines before him, was unable to replace a goalkeeping legend.

ANDREW FORD