Tottenham On This Day: Spurs Defeat Manchester United In FA Cup Replay
By Logan Holmes
Tottenham On This Day
Tottenham and Manchester United played out a gruelling and combative FA Cup 3rd Round replay at White Hart Lane which went to extra time before Spurs ran out the winners.
Spurs v United FA Cup 1968 – sending off [Photo: Logan Holmes]31st January, 1968
Tottenham Hotspur 1 Manchester United 0 (aet) (FA Cup 3rd Round Replay)
Scorer: Robertson
Team: Jennings; Kinnear, Knowles; Mullery, England, Mackay; Robertson, Gilzean (Venables), Chivers, Greaves, Beal
A late equaliser from Tottenham’s new signing, Martin Chivers, had earned Spurs a replay in the 2 – 2 draw at Old Trafford. The replay, however, was a very tight, tense and combative affair, which was described in the following morning’s papers as a ‘bruising’ Cup tie.
Jimmy Greaves was re-instated to the Spurs team with Terry Venables dropping down to the bench. The match remained scoreless throughout the ninety minutes. Meeting four days after the original match, some old scores had to be settled and in the second half Joe Kinnear and Brian Kidd were sent off for a tussle in the Spurs penalty area.
In extra time the match was settled by a disputed goal from winger, Jimmy Robertson, after ten minutes of the extra time. United players protested strongly that Mike England had impeded their goalkeeper, Alex Stepney, in the build up to the goal.
Desmond Hackett, writing for the Daily Express, described the game in less than complimentary terms,
‘The game brought only discredit to two famous names in football as they played out a Soccer shambles…..The first half contained little of note to excite a crowd of around 65,000, It was only the tension of the game and the tremendous stakes that kept the crowd roaring and howling…..It was late in the second half before the game presented some football worth watching and it looked as if Tottenham had taken command when Dave Mackay, clearly the most effective player on the field hit the post.’
Spurs were drawn against Preston North End at home in the next round.
As so often happens in these situations, the two teams met again again at White Hart Lane on the following Saturday in the League. United won 2 – 1 on that occasion.