Tottenham Hotspur v Wolverhampton Wanderers is a contender for the most traditionally English sounding football fixture out there. It’s the sort of game that would make Paul Whitehouse’s ‘Ron Manager’ make a mess in his pants.
The most famous fixtures ever played between the sides, were the two legs of the 1972 UEFA Cup final. Apparently neither side were that happy to get to the final of a European competition, only to find another English team waiting for them. This is especially true for the wives of the Spurs players, who were promised an all expenses paid trip to the away leg of the final and were understandably disappointed to find that the destination would be Wolverhampton.
I’ve been digging on YouTube for some footage of the match and eventually came up with these brief highlights of the first leg. Not that we’re missing anything really by not seeing the second leg, as we only drew 1-1 at White Hart Lane and played so poorly that Bill Nicholson went into the Wolves dressing room after the game, to tell them that they were the better team.
As a bonus the video also includes Wolves beating Arsenal 5-1, which is always a welcome sight. On my forages I came across another video for an FA Cup tie between the sides from the mid-nineties. I’ve added it as a special bonus feature, because Clive Wilson solo goals are a pretty rare sight and I also wanted to remind people just how useless Dean Austin was.
