Down Memory Lane - November 1983

Tottenham began their November fixtures by going Dutch with a trip to Rotterdam to face Feyenoord in the return leg of the UEFA Cup. It was the first time that the two clubs had met in Holland since the second leg of the 1974 UEFA Cup final. On that occasion, the Dutch side were 2-0 victors on the night giving them a 4-2 aggregate win and the Spurs supporters had run riot, leading to Tottenham being banned from European football for several years. Ironically, this covered a period when the club failed to qualify for Europe anyway ! Fortunately, the 1983 match saw different results on and off the pitch. The fans were only involved in sporadic outbreaks of violence and goals from Chris Hughton and Tony Galvin helped Spurs to a 2-0 win; a 6-2 aggregate.

From Rotterdam to Stoke, as Tottenham returned to League action with a 1-1 draw at the Victoria Ground. Four days later Boring, Boring Arsenal visited the Lane in the third round of the Milk Cup. The Gunners exacted revenge for their 5-0 defeat at Tottenham seven months earlier by winning 2-1. It was bad enough going out of the competition, but doing so to Arsenal made it all the more depressing. Three days after 48,200 had watched the Milk Cup tie, another large crowd - around 45,000 - flocked to White Hart Lane for the Division One match against Liverpool, which finished in a 2-2 draw thanks to goals from Hoddle and Archibald.

The final two League games of November both ended in victories for Spurs. The 4-2 win at a muddy Luton was achieved through goals from youngsters Ally Dick and Richard Cooke (on his debut), along with a brace from Steve Archibald taking his season’s total to 14. The result lifted us to fourth in the First Division with 25 points; that was 21 clear of Wolves in bottom place who had yet to win having played fourteen matches ! QPR, with Terry Venables at the helm, were Tottenham’s next opponents as White Hart Lane staged it’s second London derby of the month. Rangers were sponsored by Guinness and the somewhat bizarre team photo showed the the visitors players holding up a pint of the dark liquid with the impressive head (see right). But, Guinness didn’t do the team much good, Spurs triumphant by 3-2 thanks to Archibald and Falco (2).