Spurs in the cup brings lots of memories
In my first six years watching Burnley, we played Tottenham Hotspur four times in the FA Cup. It included one semi-final, one final, a feisty third round tie and a defeat despite Willie Irvine scoring a hat trick.
The feisty game, when Spurs lost their heads, was our only success and we’ve played them just once in that competition since in 55 years, that some seven seasons ago when we went out in a White Hart Lane replay.
Tonight it’s the League Cup. It will be our sixth meeting in this competition and a victory would see us reach three wins each.
More recently, with Stan Ternent in charge, we again came from behind to win 2-1, this one at home, in November 2002. Billy Hamilton had scored twice in that 4-1 win along with two Graham Roberts own goals; this time the goalscoring heroes were Robbie Blake and Steve Davis.
Moving on to this evening, we’ve got through after a penalty shoot out win at Newcastle after a 0-0 draw, and a comprehensive 4-1 home win against Rochdale in which Jay Rodriguez scored all four goals. Spurs came have only had one game to play and they too needed a penalty shoot out to win at Wolves following a 2-2 draw after they had led 2-0 with goals from Tanguy Ndombele and Harry Kane.
Both managers have said they will make changes tonight so it is very difficult trying to even second guess team line ups although Sean Dyche has given strong hints that we could see the return of captain of Ben Mee and a debut for Connor Roberts. Meanwhile there are reports that neither Harry Winks, who has been speaking out of turn, nor Dele Alli will be in the Spurs squad.
Tonight’s game will be played under different rules from the previous rounds. Although VAR won’t be in operation, goal line technology will, as seen at Arsenal last night.
The number of substitutes has changed too from the last round where teams were able to use three from seven; tonight both teams will be able to name nine substitutes and use five of them.
Our last fourth round success in this competition came at Chelsea thirteen years ago which gave us our most recent fifth round tie against Arsenal. We owe Spurs one, let’s hope it comes tonight.
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