By Dave P
September 20 2005

Grimsby Town, not a club that Spurs have played too often over the years, 15 times in fact but I have hunted high and low for a few interesting bits and bobs. We have of course played them in this competition before Grimsby Town, not a club that Spurs have played too often over the years, 15 times in fact but I have hunted high and low for a few interesting bits and bobs. We have of course played them in this competition before when on 29th October 1991 we travelled to Blundell Park for a 3rd round tie which we won 3-0 with David Howells, Gordon Durie and Gary Lineker getting the goals. And anyone making the journey should be warned that it can get a bit windy in a ground that has seen better days and is only a few yards from the North Sea. And don’t forget the ground is not actually in Grimsby but in nearby Cleethorpes.

Currently top of League Two and playing very well this could be a potential banana skin for Spurs but they have not beaten us since 22nd April 1950 when Len Duquemin scored our goal in a 2-1 Division 2 defeat. Mind you, that game was at White Hart Lane and attracted a crowd of over 46,000. It was the last time we had played them before the league cup game in 1991 and you have to go back to 1934 to find a game when they beat us up there. That was on Christmas Day in 1934 and we lost by 3 goals to nil.

The first time we played Grimsby was in 1908 at White Hart Lane and on that occasion we won 2-0 with both goals coming from Vivian Woodward in front of a crowd of 14,000.

The complete record against Grimsby is played 15, Won 9 , Drawn 1 and Lost 5 so history should serve us well although football is not played in history books and there have been one or two embarrassing defeats in our history.

So what other links are there between Tottenham and Grimsby? Surprisingly (or not) there are one or two of interest and I will start with a player by the name of Max Seeburg. Leipzig born Max Paul Seeburg was the first German born player to play in the Football League joining us from Chelsea in May 1907. Having never made any appearances for Chelsea, he only played once for us in the Football League , away to Hull City in September 1908 but he had already made 15 appearances for us in the Southern League during the 1907/08 season scoring 5 goals. He moved from Spurs to Leyton Orient in October 1908, Burnley in January 1910 and then on to Grimsby and Reading.

Another interesting player that links the two clubs is Thomas Peet Pratt. Between September 1899 and April 1900 Tom Pratt scored 54 goals in 60 games in our colours. Born in Fleetwood in in 1873 he was a centre forward of some determination who played for Fleetwood Rangers, Grimsby and Preston before joining Spurs in April 1899 winning the Southern leagues in his first season here (and contributing 25 goals) In May 1900 he returned to Preston and then back to Fleetwood before moving back south to play for Woolwich Arsenal, Fulham and back north to Blackpool. His career totals were 82 goals in 220 ‘League’ games and his most productive spell was here at Spurs where he scored 54 of those 82 goals.

I suppose finally I will have to mention the most famous player who played for both Spurs and Grimsby and that would be Herbert Chapman. Now I know he was best known for his managerial successes elsewhere but he did score 22 goals in 71 first team games as a player at White Hart Lane after having previously played for Rochdale, Swindon Town, Grimsby Town, Sheffield United, Notts County and Northampton Town. He joined us in March 1905 before returning to Northampton as Player Manager in April 1907