Tottenham Score Nine against Forest, Know Your Tottenham History
By Logan Holmes
On 29th September, 1962 Tottenham scored nine goals against Nottingham Forest with Jimmy Greaves leading the way by claiming four. It was Spurs’ eleventh match of a season which had already seen them score five goals in the Charity Shield match at Ipswich, six against West Ham United at Upton Park and four goals on three occasions in home League games against Aston Villa, Manchester City and Blackburn Rovers. The previous week, however, Spurs had been beaten 1 – 3 by Sheffield United at Bramall Lane.
Jimmy Greaves Loves to Score against Nottingham Forest
Tottenham Hotspur 9 Nottingham Forest 2
Scorers: Greaves (4), Jones (2), Medwin, Allen (pen), White
Prior to this game Forest had conceded only 11 goals in ten games and afterwards they had their goalkeeper to thank that the score didn’t reach double figures. After five minutes, however, Forest had the perfect start with a goal following a mistake in the Spurs defence. Spurs were level within a minute through Greaves, went ahead five minutes later with Greaves’ second and had to wait for only another four minutes for the third from Cliff Jones. After half an hour Spurs scored their fourth through John White and then Terry Medwin added another before Greaves completed his hat-trick to make it six before half-time.
Spurs were playing slick, interchanging football and continued in the second half with a Les Allen penalty and a second goal from Jones. Midway through the second half Forest forced Bill Brown into a number of excellent saves but then late on Spurs re-asserted themselves and Greaves scored his fourth and the Forest keeper saved them from further humiliation. Forest did manage a second four minutes from time.
Full back, Ron Henry, who only scored one goal in his Tottenham career nearly broke his duck against Forest when he hit the bar. He still had a number of years to wait, however, for that elusive first goal.
Team: Brown; Baker, Henry; Blanchflower, Norman, Mackay; Medwin, White, Allen, Greaves, Jones
The following morning’s papers were full of praise for Tottenham with one describing the match as ‘a superlative display of attacking soccer that swept through the Forest defence like an avalanche. Spurs’ goals were all gems from an assorted cluster, clean cut and polished.’
Throughout his career Jimmy Greaves had a tremendous goal scoring record against Nottingham Forest, scoring 24 League goals against them, fifteen of them for Spurs.