Hoddle and Crooks Get Tottenham off to a Good Start (1980) Know Your Tottenham History

Garth Crooks – Scored on Tottenham debut

On 16th August, 1980 Tottenham opened the season with a home game against Nottingham Forest. Glenn Hoddle and Garth Crooks scored the goals which brought Spurs an first day victory in a season that was to end very successfully with victory in the Centenary FA Cup Final replay at Wembley.

Tottenham were embarking on their third season back in the 1st Division after a one year absence in season 1977-78. Keith Burkinshaw’s team, even with players like Steve Perryman, Glenn Hoddle, Ossie Ardiles and Ricky Villa had taken time to establish themselves in the top flight. They had finished the previous season in 14th position and the teams greatest failing was their lack of a reliable goalscorer. During the summer, Steve Archibald and Garth Crooks were signed and they were to prove a very successful pairing. Archibald had cost £800,000, Tottenham’s record purchase, from Aberdeen while Crooks had been signed from Stoke City for £650,000.

The Difference a Goal Scorer Makes!

Tottenham Hotspur 2 Nottingham Forest 0

Scorers: Hoddle, Crooks

Archibald and Crooks made their Spurs’ debuts against Nottingham Forest at White Hart Lane. Forest had finished fifth the previous season but were the reigning European Champions having retained the European Cup for a second year. It was a difficult opening to the season for Spurs but they made a good start and with a Hoddle penalty and Crooks scoring against a Forest side which had Peter Shilton in goal.

The signing of Archibald and Crooks proved the key to Tottenham’s success in the early 1980s. They provided the goal scoring touch which had been missing for the previous two seasons. Four of that starting line-up, however, would not feature in the FA Cup winning team, so it was only as the season developed that Burkinshaw came upon his best formation as Mark Kendall, Gordon Smith, Terry Yorath and John Lacy would lose out to Milija Aleksic, Graham Roberts, Paul Miller and Tony Galvin.

Team: Kendall; Smith, Hughton; Yorath, Lacy, Perryman; Ardiles (Armstrong), Archibald, Villa, Hoddle, Crooks.

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