By Dave P
December 26 2005

Boxing Day is one of the days that I enjoy going to the football more than any other. After all the excesses of the day before it’s a good chance to get some fresh air away from the relatives and enjoy a game of football Boxing Day is one of the days that I enjoy going to the football more than any other. After all the excesses of the day before it’s a good chance to get some fresh air away from the relatives and enjoy a game of football. As I have mentioned on here before it’s not that long ago that football was also played on Christmas Day and the normal thing was to play the same opponents on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Birmingham were our opponents in these Christmas fixtures in 1925. On Christmas Day we traveled to St. Andrews where 29,586 supporters watched us lose 3-1. Our solitary goal coming from a Tommy Clay Penalty. The following day a crowd of 44,429 were at White Hart Lane for the return fixture where we duly got our revenge with a 2-1 win. Jimmy Seed and Frank Osborne scoring the goals.

The only other occasion when Birmingham were our Boxing day opponents was in 1975 and the result was not so good from our point of view. We played badly and lost 3-1 and 21,651 saw Martin Chivers score our goal from the penalty spot.

In August 1962 a crowd of over 51,000 packed into the Lane to witness a 3-0 win for Spurs. Goals from Danny Blanchflower (Penalty), Jimmy Greaves and Cliff Jones sealed the win for us. This followed a gate of 62,917 at the Lane in January 1962 for an FA Cup third round replay in our 1962 Cup winning year. On that occasion we were 4-2 winners with Terry Medwin (2), Les Allen and Jimmy Greaves the scorers.

These gates were a far cry from the meagre 9,359 that witnessed a First Division 2-0 win at White Hart Lane on 16th April 1986. John Chiedozie and Marc Falco were the scorers on that occasion.

On a warm September evening in 1957 Alf Stokes had a night to remember as he racked up five goals in a 7-1 win. Tommy Harmer from the penalty spot and Terry Dyson scoring the other two. The other thing of note that happened that evening was in the Birmingham goal. At 4-1 down Citys’ keeper Gil Merrick suffered a gashed head and had to go off. England winger Gordon Astall took his place between the sticks. Meanwhile later in the game Gill Merrick returned to the pitch and finished the game on the right wing.

The following season Birmingham gained their revenge as they won 4-0 at White Hart Lane on 22nd November. This time however it was the Spurs keeper John Hollowbread who went off injured at half time to be replaced by full-back Peter Baker. Spurs completed that game with ten men, this of course being before the days of substitutes.

Now a quick look at a player who had spells at both clubs. John William Jordan, born in Romford in November 1921, was an inside forward who started his career as an amateur at Bromley and then Grays Athletic before moving to West Ham as an amateur. He then signed for Spurs in July 1947 and turned professional the following month. He was a footballer of some note as an amateur but he was not a success as a professional and after a short stay at Spurs in which time he scored 13 times in 28 appearances (which to be honest is not that bad a return) he left to the mediocrity that was Juventus! in August 1948. His stay in Italy was not that long however as he returned to English football with Birmingham in March 1949 before rounding off his short professional career with stints at Sheffield Wednesday (1950-51) and then returning to the amateur game with Tonbridge.