Can It Be Like August 1980 For Tottenham at Crystal Palace?
By Alan Hill
The trip to Crystal Palace for the first match of the new season brings back happy memories of an August, 1980 encounter with Palace at Selhurst Park. Hopefully, the outcome on Sunday will be the same for Tottenham.
1980 programme for Palace v Spurs [Photo: Alan Hill]Here we are then, back at the first game of the new season and whilst Logan will as usual be giving you all the stats, match reports and current developments at Spurs, I am back on a nostalgia trip to a game I attended in the past, related to our current opponents.
August, 1980
So, first game of the season is Crystal Palace away. The game I have in mind was an evening game on Tuesday 19th August 1980. The programme cost 30p! That would have been a short trip on the tube from my flat in the West End. The crowds in those days were something else, over 27,000 for this game at Selhurst Park but the first match of the season, where we beat the European Champions Nottingham Forest with goals from Crooks and Hoddle had 43,398 at White Hart Lane.
The Palace team were managed at the time by Terry Venables, the ex-Tottenham and England midfielder, who went on to manage both Spurs and England with distinction, delivering the F.A. Cup in 1991. Venables had just had to let Kenny Sansom and John Burridge go but bought in a bright young striking prospect called Clive Allen. In his programme piece, Terry said,
"I have known Clive since he was a boy at Queen’s Park Rangers. So has Gerry Francis (also playing in Palace’s midfield). I know we have done a good deal. Terry Fenwick is the young man who will succeed Kenny Sansom."
I wonder what ever happened to them.
Palace v Spurs 1980
In the close season, Spurs had signed Garth Crooks and Steve Archibald. Crooks had kept Stoke up with 12 goals the previous season and Archibald had scored 23 goals for Aberdeen. Add that to the 19 Glenn Hoddle had got for us and things were looking up. The combined cost of the two signings was £1.5 million. Archibald was the first £1 million player to leave Scotland – and that was nine times the fee that Aston Villa paid Dundee United for Andy Gray only 5 years earlier. That puts £85 million for Gareth Bale into context, even though it’s over 30 years later.
In his regular Palace programme column, “Palace Guard”, Alan Hughes wrote, “It’s crystal ball time, the annual ceremony of neck sticking out is upon us again.” (see my previous blog for my effort for this season) “Archibald is a proven expert at getting the ball in the net. Not much risk there, buying quality Aberdeenshire never is, especially as Archibald is well rated by Dennis Law, a fellow Aberdonian…and then to Stoke for the powerful Garth Crooks. They could easily develop into the Wraith and the Wrath.”
He clearly knew what he was talking about.
In another interesting parallel to today, the Whitehorse Lane end at Selhurst Park had been substantially altered to accommodate a new Sainsbury’s supermarket, whilst today one is springing up next to White Hart Lane as part of the deal to build the new Northumberland Park (or is it Gareth Bale) stadium.
In the match itself, this developing Spurs team showed some real early season promise. Not unlike today a few big name forwards had joined an already promising squad. For Soldado and Chadli, you could read Crooks and Archibald. The question was, how quickly would they gel? We soon had the answer, Spurs added to their victory over Forest with a 4-3 win. One from Archibald, two from Crooks and one from Hoddle.
I wandered out of the ground on a high, the future looking bright. Let’s hope for something similar on Sunday. Just like 1980, we play away at Arsenal a few weeks later. I’ll brush over what happened in that one…
Palace under Holloway
We all know Ian Holloway is no mug. Having seen the way we defended set pieces pre-season, I fear he may be about to mug us though. I think he has done well to sign Kevin Phillips. Even at his relatively advanced age, I’d have him in our squad as a back-up striker in a flash. This match is the classic banana skin. Please don’t slip up Spurs. I want you buzzing and in contention for when my season ticket finally arrives.
Stop Press: As I type this on Thursday morning, Sky announce that we have successfully secured Etienne Capoue from Toulouse. Being a holding midfielder, that will help to ensure gaps don’t appear with the departure of Tom Huddlestone and Jake Livermore to Hull. Palace have just signed a goalkeeper from Scotland. Not sure if he’ll be in their team on Sunday. Darren Bent has also gone to Fulham after what Sky described as a fractious relationship with the Villa management and being stripped of the captaincy. That seems to be par for the course. Good luck Martin Jol. At least he won’t be taking out his ire on Spurs at Palace this weekend. Ian Holloway was after him.