Spurs Once Upon a Time 18 - (Middlesbrough Away)

By Dave P
December 18 2005

Cold midweek nights at Ayresome Park are no more as Boro ply their trade in a modern sponsored bowl known as the Cellnet Riverside Stadium. Did you know it only took 32 weeks to build? Neither did I.

Cold midweek nights at Ayresome Park are no more as Boro ply their trade in a modern sponsored bowl known as the Cellnet Riverside Stadium. Did you know it only took 32 weeks to build? Neither did I.

Not normally regarded as one of the glamour ties of the English game but they have sometimes been fairly crucial in Tottenhams efforts to qualify for Europe. The home game at the tail end of last season springing to mind.

Our league history of visits to Teeside in the early days does not make for happy reading either – It took us ten visits to record a win up there although some of the games must have been fairly exciting for the paying punters and one in particular was the game played on 13th February 1915. On that occasion Jimmy Cantrell scored Tottenhams first away league hat-trick and was still on the losing side as we lost what must have been an amazing game as it finished 7-5 to the Teesiders. He actually scored four of the five goals with Bert Bliss getting the other one in a game that would have been good value for money for the 8,000 attendance.

It was not to be until the 15th September 1923 that we were to beat them up there in a game we won 1-0 when Alex Lindsay got the decisive goal. Lindsay also scored both goals in the home 2-1 victory over ‘Boro a week earlier on the 8th September.

Now I found it a bit strange to find that we played home and away fixtures against opposition on successive weeks so early in the season and initially thought there must be a misprint in the records but on further investigation found that the fixtures at this time were unusual in that a lot of the games were arranged in this manner, home one week and away to the same opposition the week after. This seemed to be the case for most teams from the end of the Great War and resumption of the Football League in 1919/20 and lasted until the 1923/24 season.

Our league fixtures for the 1923/24 season for example read as follows;

25 Aug Preston H
27 Aug Chelsea H
01 Sep Preston A
03 Sep Chelsea A
08 Sep Middlesbrough H
15 Sep Middlesbrough A
22 Sep Bolton H
29 Sep Bolton A
06 Oct Notts County A
13 Oct Notts County H
20 Oct Sunderland A
27 Oct Sunderland H
And so on up until the last two of the season which were ;
26 Apr Burnley A
03 May Burnley H

Now does anyone know why because I don’t ?

As we enter the festive season it is worth noting that we have played Boro a few times at this time of the year but none so festive as the games in the 1952/53 season. The home game was played in front of over 36,000 fans at White hart Lane on Christmas Day and we won that match 7-1. Les Bennet getting four of those goals with Len Duquemin (2) and Eddie Baily scoring the others. The return fixture that season was played two days later on 27th December in front of 23,265 fans. We won that 4-0 with Les Bennett scoring again along with Walters , Duquemin and a Bilciss own goal.

A nice double and we go into days game hoping to complete the double over ‘Boro, something we have not done since the 1996/97 season when Andy Sinton scored the goal at home that gave us a 1-0 win in April to add to the 3-0 away win in October 96. Teddy Sheringham (twice) and Ruel Fox scoring on that occasion.