The start of the 1977-78
season heralded a few changes at Tottenham Hotspur. For a
start, Spurs were in the Second Division, following a
disastrous season (which included a 2-8 defeat at Derby
County, a 3-5 reversal at West Ham and a 0-4 thrashing at
Everton) at the end of which they found themselves
propping up the rest of Division One and duly suffered
relegation along with Sunderland and Stoke City,
Secondly, the traditional kit of plain white shirt, navy
blue shorts and white socks had been
"Admiralised". That is to say kit manufacturers
Admiral had put their logo all over the strip. There will
little "Admirals" on the V-neck and down both
sleeves on the shirt (and one on the front), more little
"Admirals" down the sides of the shorts (and
another on the front) and even more of the things on the
top of the socks. Thirdly, the official programme had
also undergone a major facelift. It was bigger in size,
50% more expensive (15p compared to 10p the previous
season) & featured a colour picture (which was
changed every few games) on the front cover. Lastly, Pat
Jennings was no longer Spurs goalkeeper, He'd been
transferred during the summer (after thirteen years at
White Hart Lane), and if that wasn't bad enough, he'd
gone to Arsenal, where he was to continue as a top-class
goalkeeper for a good few years. Selling Pat Jennings
(obviously of the opinion that he was finished as a First
Division goalkeeper) was probably Keith Burkinshaw's
biggest error of judgement in the transfer market. He did
make amends though, by signing the likes of Villa,
Ardiles, Archibald and Crooks for Tottenham.
| Spurs had made a good
start to life in Division Two and had won all of
their first five home league games, including a
5-1 victory over Oldham Athletic. The sixth home
league game turned out to be the only Spurs game
I saw that season. It came a week after a 1-4
defeat against Charlton Athletic at The Valley
and the visitors at White Hart Lanewere Bristol
Rovers, who the previous weekend had beaten
Blackburn Rovers 4-1, It was only my fifth ever
Spurs game, and the previous four had all ended
in draws (2-2 versus Manchester City in 1975-76,
& 3-3, 2-2 and 1-1 against Everton,
Manchester City and Sunderland respectively,
during the relegation season). |
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On the Thursday
before the Bristol Rovers game, manager Keith Burkinshaw
had signed unknown forward Colin Lee from Torquay, for a
fee of £60,000. He went straight into the team and
partnered Ian Moores in the Spurs attack. On the morning
of the match Spurs were third (behind Bolton and Luton)
in the Second Division, with Rovers fifth from bottom. By
half time Spurs were 3-0 up, having dominated the match
from the start. Lee had scored the first two goals, the
opener came after Moores had nodded down a Glenn Hoddle
cross, with the second a powerful header. Just before
half time another excellent cross from Hoddle was headed
in by Peter Taylor. During the half time interval I
wondered if, at my fifth attempt, I was finally going to
see Spurs win, obviously my pessimistic streak, which is
prevalent these days, was also present at the tender age
of eleven as I expected a second half revival from
Bristol Rovers, who would score three times, prevent
Spurs from netting again and thus draw 3-3, depriving me
of a seeing Spurs win a game. I needn't have worried,
Peter Taylor crossed for Ian Moores to score the fourth
in the 56th minute, then in the last fifteen minutes
Spurs rattled in five more, Lee completed his hat trick
for 5-0, two more from Moores made it 7-0 before Lee
again and finally Glenn Hoddle, (who looked suspiciously
offside but deserved a goal) rounded off the scoring for
9-0.
I had a chance to re-live the
game that evening as it was featured on Match of the Day.
The other game shown was a 0-0 draw between Liverpool and
Everton. At the end of the season Spurs were promoted
thanks to a 0-0 draw at Southampton (who went up as
champions) on the last day of the season. That game was
also shown on Match of the Day, and at the end of the programme the nine goals from the Bristol Rovers game
were shown again, as Spurs had pipped Brighton for the
final promotion place by virtue of having a superior goal
difference of nine goals!
And what of Mr Lee, he of the
fairytale debut? Well, he made another twenty three
appearances for Spurs during the 77-8 season, plus two
more as sub, scoring a further seven goals. In the 78-9
season Lee scored seven more goals, and moved to right
back. After eight more games the following year he moved
to Chelsea.
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