Tottenham Hotspur once upon a time 6 - Villa away

By Dave P
September 17 2005

Aston Villa, although older than Tottenham Hotspur by 8 years share a very similar early history and origin. A group of lads from a cricket club meet under a gas lamp to decide to form a football team to while away the winter months. In Villas case that was in1874 (1882 for Spurs) and thirteen years later in 1887 they won their first FA Cup. They were of course a league side by then being one of the founder members of the Football league in 1888. Spurs took 19 years to win their first FA cup but we were still a non-league side.

We did not play them until 1896 when in a friendly at Northumberland Park on 11th April we lost 3-1 with our goal being scored by J.Logan.. In 1897 we again played them in Tottenham on 23rd January, and again there were four goals but this time they were shared two apiece. In 1898 a home friendly saw us lose 3-2 and then in 1900 we travelled to Birmingham to play them away for the first time in a game that saw them win 4-3.

Our first competitive fixture was in 1903 when in the third round of the FA Cup Aston Villa beat us 3-2 at White Hart Lane. We were then drawn against Villa a year later in the second Round and the first fixture on February 20th 1904 was abandoned after 38 minutes because of ‘Crowd trouble’. Someone had left the gates ‘padlocked open’ and so many supporters crowded into the ground that they encroached on the pitch and the game was called off with Villa leading 1-0. The ‘replayed’ tie took place at Villa Park on 25th February and Spurs went on to win 1-0 with a J. Jones goal. Spurs were fined £500 for the incidents that led to the first game being abandoned.

Aston Villas record scorer for a season (with 49 goals in the 1930/31 campaign) went by the name of Pongo Waring. In January 1934 however, he did not have such a good day as Aston Villa were 5-0 down to Spurs when Pongo was sent off. The final score on that 6th day of January 1934 was 5-1 to Tottenham. He did however fare better when on 22nd September 1934 at White Hart Lane Aston Villa won 2-0 and Pongo got onto the scoresheet. That was the day the new East Stand (including the shelf) was opened to the public for the first time and saw a crowd of 42,088 at White Hart Lane (interestingly that was just over 2,000 down on the corresponding fixture the season before – 44,365)

And now a quick look at a player that featured for both sides and deserves to be featured in any pub quiz worth its salt. Ronald William Dix was born in Bristol in September 1912 and attended and played for South Central School (Bristol). He signed for Bristol Rovers as an amateur in July 1927 after having featured for England Schools at the age of just 13. Eighteen months after joining Rovers he turned professional and then signed for Blackburn in 1932. From there he went to Aston Villa where he spent four years before moving to Derby County in 1937. Finding his way to Spurs in 1939 he found his career interrupted by the Second World War. After the war he played one season for Spurs scoring 5 goals in 40 outings before moving to Reading and then retirement. So why should he feature in pub quizzes you ask? Well in March 1928 whilst at Bristol Rovers and in a 3rd Division (South) game against Norwich he became the youngest ever player to score in League football at the age of 15 years and 180 days.

Finally, as we all know Villa Park has featured many an FA Cup Semi Final including a few featuring Spurs. Our centre forward, Len (The Duke) Duqemin, played there against Blackpool twice and scored our only goal on both occasions but unfortunately finished on the losing side both times. 3-1 in 1948 and 2-1 in 1953.