Tottenham Hotspur on this Day - 1st December 1990

• Tottenham Hotspur on this Day - 1st December

  1st December 1990

   

  Chelsea 3 Tottenham Hotspur 2 (1st Division)

  Scorers: Gascoigne, Lineker

   

  It could only happen to Spurs.

   

  

  
  Ten months earlier Spurs had won 2-1 at Stamford Bridge through goals from David Howells and Gary Lineker. The defeat on this day in 1990 turned out to be the first game in a long losing sequence. Spurs next win at Stamford Bridge didn’t come until April Fool’s Day 2018 when Christian Eriksen and a Dele Alli double brought a 3-1 victory, a run of 30 matches in all competitions at Stamford Bridge without a win.

   

  The signs surrounding this match were not promising from early on. The team, with manager Terry Veneables, stopped for lunch at a hotel in central London on the way to the game. The team coach was parked illegally, clamped and towed away with the team kit inside. As a consequence, the Tottenham party arrived late, by taxi, at Stamford Bridge, handed in their team sheet late and the match was delayed by 11 minutes. Spurs were later fined by the Football Association.

   

  On the pitch, it wasn’t much better. Chelsea were more up for the contest while Spurs were sluggish and by the time they woke up, it was too late. Tottenham had 18 year old youth international, David Tuttle making his debut in place of the injured Steve Sedgley. Inside five minutes he was left standing when former Spurs youth player Kerry Dixon, opened the scoring.

   

  Gary Lineker did have the ball in the net but it was disallowed for hand-ball. Chelsea were two up at the interval, scoring from close range with a minute to go, after Erik Thorstvedt had pushed out a shot from future Spurs’ signing Gordon Durie, only for Bumstead to score.

   

  For the second half, Mitchell Thomas replaced Tuttle in central defence with another young player, Justin Edinburgh, coming on at right-back. There was little initial improvement from Spurs as Wise struck the bar from a splendid free-kick.

   

  Paul Gascoigne with an even more remarkable free-kick pulled a goal back for Spurs to give them some hope after 54 minutes. Not for long though - two minutes later, a corner wasn’t cleared properly and Durie’s shot from the edge of the box bounced awkwardly in front of Thorstvedt and into the net.

   

  A minute later, Spurs should have been back in the game but Lineker having been brought down by the goalkeeper, put his penalty over the bar.

   

  Paul Walsh replaced Nayim and for the final half-hour Tottenham came to life and as Chelsea tired, Spurs put them under considerable pressure.

   

  A Gascoigne header from a corner was cleared off the line, Lineker was put clean through again but the goalkeeper saved at his feet and he then shot wide from a similar position. Spurs eventually got their second when Paul Stewart’s pass found from Lineker who scored with an acrobatic shot in the 82nd minute but it wasn’t enough to take the points.

   

  For all their late effort, it was too little, too late for Tottenham.

   

  Team: Thorstvedt; Thomas, Tuttle (Edinburgh, Mabbutt, Van den Hauwe; Howells, Allen Gascoigne, Nayim (Walsh), Lineker, Stewart