By Dave P
December 18 2004

We have never played Southampton on December the 18th but in 1985 we did play them on the 17th in a one off competition, The Screen Sport Super Cup. We have never played Southampton on December the 18th but in 1985 we did play them on the 17th in a one off competition, The Screen Sport Super Cup. Sponsored by Cable TV company Screen Sport this was a hastily set up competition for the teams that would have qualified for Europe had English teams not been banned following the Heysel Stadium disaster. Two groups of three teams (Manchester United, Everton and Norwich in one group and Tottenham, Liverpool and Southampton in the other) played on a home an away basis and the top two from each Group went through to the Semi- finals.

ON 2nd October 1985 we played our home match against Southampton in front of 11.549 fans and won the match 2-1 with two Mark Falco goals. The away match was played at the Dell on 17th December and was a 3-1 victory for Tottenham. only 4680 supporters saw our goals from Mark Falco, Clive Allen and David Leworthy.

The semi-finals of this competition were Liverpool v Norwich and Tottenham V Everton. We lost our semi final over the two legs (0-0 at home and 3-1 away) in front of very small crowds of 7548 at White Hart Lane and 12008 at Goodison Park. Liverpool went on to beat Everton 7-2 on aggregate in the two legged final, once again in front of very small crowds (for a final) of 20,00 at Goodison and 26000 at Anfield. The final was actually played at the start of the following season due to fixture congestion and the competition was never repeated.

Southampton were Spurs first ever opponents in the Premier League when on 15th August 1992 we travelled to the Dell for an uneventful 0-0 draw. Another uneventful 0-0 draw at the Dell, this time at the end of the 1977/78 season was enough to secure promotion back to the First Division at the first attempt following our relegation the year before. Our Opponents in the third round of the FA Cup, Brighton will also remember that day as they just failed to secure their own promotion finishing behind us on goal difference and eleven points clear of fifth placed Blackburn.

Following our firts ever FA cup win we were drawn against Southampton in the first round the following year only to lose after three attempts. The first match was a 1-1 home draw on 25th January 1902 with our goal being scored by David Copeland. The second match was played in Southampton on 29th January 1902 and ended 2-2 after extra time, both our goals coming from Ted Hughes. The third and Final match was played at Readings ground on 3rd February and we lost 2-1 with a Spurs goal from John Henry Kirwan.

One more match worth a mention here is our highest score against The Saints. On 28th March 1936 we played a League Division Two match at White Hart Lane and 28,907 supporters saw a Joe Meek Hat-trick, a George Hunt Hat-trick and two goals from Willie Evans as we won the game 8-0.