By Dave P
November 28 2004

28th November and Middlesbrough is another club we have never played 'on this day' So what shall we look at this time instead. Lets go back 100 years to the day 28th November and Middlesbrough is another club we have never played 'on this day'

So what shall we look at this time instead. Lets go back 100 years to the day to the 1904/05 season when on 28th November 1904 we entertained Cambridge University in a friendly. The score on that day exactly 100 years ago was Tottenham Hotspur 2 Cambridge University 2. Our goals that day came from Charlie O'Hagan and an own goal.

Charles O'Hagan joined Spurs from Everton in May 1904 and scored seven goals in 36 games before transferring to todays opponents Middlesbrough in July 1906.

Later on that season (on 24th January) we took a team to Cambridge University for a return friendly drawing that game 4-4 with 2 goals each from A.Warner and J.Cameron.

Alfred Cragg Warner was an inside forward who spent three years at Tottenham after joining us from Notts County. He scored 30 goals in 93 first class games in our colours before leaving for Luton Town in 1905.

John Cameron joined us as a player under the reign of our first manager Frank Brettell. Cameron became player manager in 1899 leading the Spurs attack when we won the Southern League in 1900, the FA cup in 1901 (scoring the equaliser in the replay of that final) and he was a key member of the side that finished second in the Southern League in both 1902 and 1904. Whilst at Spurs he scored 139 goals in 293 appearances resigning as manager in 1907. He then had a spell as coach of the German side Dresden FC before returning to manage his home town side Ayr United after the Great War.


We move on just a few years to the 1908/09 season when on 28th November we entertained another team from up north, Grimsby Town, in a Second division game. We won the match that day 2-0 with 2 goals from V.J.Woodward. This particular season, our first in the Football League, ended with us finishing second in the second division behind Bolton Wanderers and gaining promotion to the First Division at the first attempt.

Vivian John Woodward, known at the time as 'The Human Chain of Lightning' or 'The Footballer with Magic in his Boots', was arguably the greatest amateur centre/inside forward of his time. He was the player that scored the first Football League goal at White Hart Lane in a three nil victory over Wolves in September 1908. He went on to net 100 goals in 195 first team outings. Woodward was capped 23 times by England at senior professional level scoring 29 goals for his country and also made 67 amateur international appearances. He also appeared for the United Kingdom in the 1908 and 1912 Olympics. His record of 29 Senior Professional international goals stood for 40 years until Tom Finney surpassed it in 1958. Woodward served on the Board of directors at White Hart Lane and at Chelsea whom he played for between 1909 and 1915. A very useful cricketer with Spencer CC, he worked as a gentleman farmer and an architect during the 1940s.


Finally and not looking at a particularly good game for the Spurs but one notable event that took place against todays opponents Middlesbrough. On February 8th 1913 James Cantrell scored Tottenhams first ever away League hat-trick in a game that ended 7-5 (seven-five) in favour of 'Boro'. Cantrell scored 4 that day with Herbert Bliss getting our fifth. No repeat today of that one please Tottenham.