Spurs on this day - no 17 in an occasional series

By Dave P
November 9 2004

This time rather than choose games played on this day I have taken the 'On this day' part of the title to mean the day a manager has his first game in charge of the side.

Once again, although a Spurs v Burnley fixture has an interesting history including some high scoring games, we have never played them on November 9th so once again I will look for something different. This time, rather than choose games played on this day I have taken the 'On this day' part of the title to mean the day a manager has his first game in charge of the side. Ok so Martin Jol took charge on saturday but as he had not yet been appointed the main man, today counts as his first game in charge.

Lets go back to the early days and our first 'Manager', Frank Brettell. He was appointed manager on 14th March 1898 although he had been in charge for a few years in his role as Secretary-Manager. His first game as 'Manager' came on 17th March 1898 when we played a United league game against Loughboro in front of around 500 supporters. We won the game 5-0 with goals from W.Joyce (2), R.Stormont and D.Black(2). We finished that season in second place in the United League behind Luton and ahead of Arsenal. Earlier on that season we had to play our Home game against Reading at Millwall ground after our ground was closed due to attacks on Luton players by our supporters. Franks record as manager was Played 63, Won 37, Drew 12 and Lost 14.

Lets now move on to 1912 and the first spell in charge for Peter McWilliam who took control on 26th December 1912. His first match on that day was against Manchester City at home in front of 20,000 fans. We won 4-0 with goals from W.J.Minter and a J.Cantrell hat-trick. In Peters first spell in charge of the club he oversaw 701 games, 311 wins, 150 draws and 240 losses. This included the FA Cup Final victory over Wolves in 1921. Peter left to join Middlesboro in 1927 after we refused to give him a pay rise (we would not pay him the £1000 he asked for after 'boro had offered him £1500 per year). He returned as manager of Tottenham for a second spell in 1938. His first game in this second spell was at home to Coventry City on 3rd September 1938, a match we won 2-1 with goals from J.A. Morrison and C.C.Lyman. His second spell covered a total of 49 games, winning 20 with 12 draws and 17 losses. The two spells combined made him our longest serving manager. He had a policy of promoting young players from our nursery club Northfleet and it was him during this pre-war season that included a certain W.E Nicholson in the fisrt team for the first time. Peter McWilliams tenure as Spurs boss effectively ended with the outbreak of the second world war as he considered himself too old to continue after the war had ended.


We'll take a look at one more, Arthur Rowe, who took some of the younger players introduced by Peter including that certain W.E Nicholson, and the team produced by the post-war manager Joe Hulme including Hulmes' last signing Alf Ramsey, and then turned them into a side that won back to back Division Two and Football League Championships. Arthurs first game in charge was the final League Division 2 match of the 1948/49 season. On 7th May we travelled to Plymouth Argyle and won the game 5-0. Goals on that day came from Channel Islander Len Duquemin, Les Medley and a hat-trick from Les Bennett. Arthurs record as manager was 283 games consisting of 135 wins, 59 draws and 89 losses. He resigned in April 1955.

After a Stint by Jimmy Anderson the reins were handed to Bill Nicholson and we all know what happened in his first game don't we.


All the best Martin Jol - you have a lot to live up to - Lets start this evening against Burnley.