[OMT] Tottenham Hotspur v Sunderland

please log in to view this image

Tottenham Hotspur host Sunderland at White Hart Lane on Monday 7th April 2014 (KO 20:00) in the 33rd Round of 2013-14 Premier League matches.

This will be the 117th time the two clubs have met. Spurs come into the game in sixth place in the table on 56 points with Sunderland 19th on 25 points.

The first meeting came at Northumberland Park in March 1898 when Spurs were playing in the Southern League in a friendly which Sunderland won 2-0.

A second meeting followed within the year when Spurs beat Sunderland 2-1 in the old second round (today's fourth round) of the FA Cup in February 1899.

Tottenham's first visit to Sunderland came during a mini tour of the North-East to celebrate the turn of the new Century with Spurs winning the friendly match 3-1 on 2nd January 1900.

The first Football League meetings between the two clubs saw Sunderland win at home 3-1 in September 1909 and Spurs having a comprehensive win in the return fixture at White Hart Lane 5-1.

Tottenham Hotspur's all-time record attendance of 75,038 at White Hart Lane came in an FA Cup 6th round match against Sunderland in March 1938. Sundeland won the game 1-0. This was the only FA Cup match Sunderland have won out of the 7 played so far with Spurs winning five and one game drawn.

The only two League matches ever played outside the Top Flight came during 1977-78 when Spurs won at Roker Park 2-1 but lost the return Division Two match at the Lane 3-2.

The clubs first met in the Football League Cup in November 1984 with Spurs drawing 0-0 away but Sunderland winning the replay at the Lane 2-1.
The three matches in the competition have resulted in a win each and one game drawn.

Since Sunderland joined the Premier League in season 1996-97, no further domestic cup ties have been played between the two clubs.Spurs have a good record during the Premier League Era with 15 wins to Sunderland's 5 and the remaining 4 games drawn. Spurs have taken an average of 2.04 points off Sunderland in the 24 matches played so far.

The 2010-11 fixture at White Hart Lane ended in a 1-1 draw with Rafael van der Vaart putting Spurs ahead in the second half only for Sunderland's Asamoah Gyan to equalise three minutes later. The match at Sunderland resulted in a 2-1 win for Spurs with Asamoah Gyan putting the Black Cats ahead after 11 minutes before Michael Dawson's equaliser just before half-time. Niko Kranjcar scored the winner for Spurs in the 57th minute.

The 2011-12 match at White Hart Lane in December resulted in a 1-0 win for Spurs with substitute striker Roman Pavlyuchenko scoring the winner with just over an hour of the match played. The three points won put Spurs in third place in the table for the first time during 2011-12. The match at Sunderland in April 2012 was a goalless draw which produced very few chances for either team.

In August 2012, Tottenham's full-back Danny Rose went to Sunderland for a season's loan. The match at the Stadium of Light in December 2012 was won by Tottenham 2-1. John O'Shea opened the scoring for the Black Cats five minutes before half-time. Carlos Cuellar headed an own goal three minutes into the second half to even the game and Aaron Lennon scored the winner three minutes later for Spurs. A 90th minute Gareth Bale goal secured all three points for Spurs at home to Sunderland on the final day of the 2012-13 season.

Hong Kong provided the setting for the 2013 Premier League Asia Trophy in July and Sunderland beat Spurs 3-1 in the Semi-Final. Gylfi Sigurdsson put Spurs ahead after 28 minutes but Cabral equalised five minutes later. Second half goals from Wes Brown and David Karlsson ensured that Sunderland progressed to the Final, where they lost 1-0 to Manchester City.

Adam Johnson opened the scoring for Sunderland after 37 minutes in their home Premier League game in December 2013. Paulinho levelled things just before half-time and John O'Shea scored an own goal five minutes into the second half to give Spurs all three points.

Overall, Spurs have the upper hand over Sunderland with 48 wins to 39 and 29 of the 116 matches played so far drawn.

please log in to view this image

Full Record of Tottenham Hotspur v Sunderland Matches 1898-2014

please log in to view this image

They Played for Spurs & Sunderland...​

Ben Alnwick
Darren Bent
Ted Birnie (Spurs player, Sunderland trainer & coach)
Ivor Broadis
Fraizer Campbell
Graham Carr (scout with both clubs)
Jim Chalmers
Pascal Chimbonda
Ernie Coquet
John Curtis
Calum Davenport
Jimmy Delvin
Márton Fülöp
Phil Gray
Jim Hartley
Alan Hutton
Joe Knowles
Steed Malbranque
Fred Mearns
Bobby Mimms
Bill Murray
George Payne
Gus Poyet (Spurs player & coach, Sunderland manager)
Andy Reid
Danny Rose
Louis Saha
Jimmy Seed
Paul Stewart
Teemu Tainio
Chris Waddle
Jack Whitbourne

please log in to view this image

Tottenham Hotspur Premier League Squad Numbers 1992-2014

Sunderland Premier League Player's Squad Numbers 1996-2014

please log in to view this image

please log in to view this image

 

Coming down for this one, will be my 4rd visit to the lane and I've not seen us lose, indeed, my second ever away game was a 3-3 draw in 1991, when we lead 3-1 then Lineker got 2 late on.

Was there when Cisse made his debut in a 2-1 win, indeed there's a video on YouTube of me and the lads, just look for the handsome lad

I love WHL love the steep banking of the away section and the noise generated, always felt comfortable down there as well, being a regular visitor to London for work etc.

As we've accepted our fate, expect a bizarre, loud, almost carnival atmosphere from our lads, we were debating fancy dress, but as we are staying down we decided to go ready for a good night out after, win, lose or draw.

As it is, I expect it will be a pretty shabby game, both of us are in a bit of a pickle, obviously in completely different ways, we can only dream of being in the top 7 being a crisis, and as we are Sunderland, I think we'll probably nick summat, purely to con us all into a few days of believing we can pull off a miracle before a defeat on Saturday.

See you again in 2 years, and enjoy next season

 

Not wishing to spoil the carnival atmosphere, but surely you still have hope. Yourselves, Cardiff and West Brom are fighting for one safe place I guess and if you play like you did against City in the league cup final, you've got a great chance. Just need some momentum. Obviously after your next game

 

Mate, Monday was it for us.

Now, we were actually pretty decent on Monday, 22 shots on goals, and had we had a fit & on form Fletcher this season we'd be alright.

We have a bunch of gutless, spineless players who raised there games when we reached a cup QF seeing their chance of a Wembley final, every one of them has gone back to ****e since.

The midfielders are afraid to shoot, pass selection is poor, strikers snap at chances, teams have trebled up on AJ knowing he is the main creative output, and John O'****e pretty much guarantees every team we play a 1 goal start.

You look at the games at home, and yeah, you think, 9-10 points still doable, but then you look at the other fixtures, and due to many of the teams around us having 6 pointers, they can't all lose their games to aid us.

Our slim hope, for me, is a Norwich collapse, but even they have WBA home on Saturday, win that, it's 10 points to Norwich, no chance at this stage.

West Brom themselves could be caught in theory, but they score goals, and we don't.

It's tragic, you know despite all this we have averaged a nose under 41,000 this season, we invested in youth this summer, intentionally, in spite of the fact that although Di Canio saved us last season, we didn't win any of the last 5 games.

The club has been horrifically mismanaged, a multi-billionaire chairman who has appointed a succession of poor scouting & procurement teams, leaving managers handicapped.

Every season we have looked to bring in players from relegated sides, we were getting there a few years back, under Keane & Bruce, they were looking to buy surplus players from teams like yourselves & Manchester United, this is the correct way, not gonna win leagues but will lifted you from 15-2- to 10-15, then you go again.

Overseas signings have been sparse, again an obvious lack of foresight ans time spent by the club in terms of developing the playing side, I'm afraid the writing has been on the wall for 3 years, maybe longer, the moment we agreed to sell Bent/Gyan we threw in the towel.

We'll be back, and hopefully the drop will do us good, we need to freshen up. Nobody fears Sunderland, the fantastic stadium is seen as a good day out to away fans,the massive support seen as friendly and not intimidating, we just need a good kick in the bollocks, and if going down sees us come back brighter, then so it must be.

We're all ****ing gutted about the way it's went, you'll go a long, long way to find fans more passionate and caring, but it is what it is, and we just have to close our eyes, breathe, and go again.

It's what we do, you know?

 

Gus, with our yo-yo form pal, I wouldn't completely rule out 3 points for you boys.

 

Would be typical Sunderland mate, win at Spurs, hope, lose to WBA at home.

Bastards.

 

You sound so depressed, GG! It's like reading some of the post-match comments on this board!

Interesting points about Bruce's transfer system, which he appears to have replicated at Hull.
It's similar to a lot of what we've done, picking up surplus players from the best sides and the best from the relegation battlers, but I think it's a tricky balancing act.
Bringing in someone who's ultra-professional like Scott Parker can be a massive boon, but being lumbered with a highly paid 2nd rater with a do-you-know-who-I-am attitude is the flip side of the coin.
That was always the risk with going after players that Ferguson was happy to let go, as he rarely made big mistakes in the market.
Everton getting Phil Neville looked a poor decision, but he turned out to be a really useful signing. Others haven't replicated his success.

I'd suggest that the bottom five sides at the moment have all had the same problem that we have - there's nobody making their midfields tick.
Scoring and conceding are obviously big problems, especially for Fulham and Cardiff, but a lot of that can be put down to not running games.
Take the pressure off your back line and feed the strikers with decent service and you'll pick up results most of the time.
Fail to dictate play and you risk being unable to get out from the back, allowing wave after wave of attacks which will inevitably result in goals.

Any chance that you could leave Johnson out for this one again, please? He looks by far your best player, so I've no idea why he's not been starting.
Good luck for the rest of the season after this game's out of the way, though. Try not to let the Geordies get you down.

 

Mate, AJ has been pretty ineffective since he was overlooked by England, although last 2 he's been good off the bench.

We simply don't have a goalscorer, and we all know what that means. If we had a Bent, a Gyan with the current side,we'd be fine. Even if Fletcher hadn't got injured playing for Scotland (**** sake...).

Bruce brought in the appalling Larsson, Gardner etc from relegated sides, but he offset that with Bent, Gyan.

There's been no offset this season, yeah we have a promising crop of young lads, but what does that mean right now?

We've missed chances all season, simple as that, even now I refuse to believe we are the 3rd worst team in the league. People say the table doesn't lie, but that's not true, a good finisher like Fletch being injured or half fit all season makes a difference, Fletcher has always been a 1 in 3 striker, he has 1.

If he had 10, we'd be around 12th. If John O'Shea didn't play, we could be as high as 9th.

It is depressing, but we'll take it, and come back.

 

I got a little stick from some in January about Fletcher, not naming names though as I'm not like that (Boss ) but some felt my choice of Fletcher as a potential candidate to replace Defoe wasn't good enough despite his decent scoring rate at all of his clubs.

What's the betting he scores against us Monday (if fit?). And then the person I refuse to name (Boss ) probably ends up PM'ing me apologising for not agreeing with my judgement earlier on in the January transfer window accepts how immense my footballing knowledge is.

P.S. If the person I refuse to name brings up about slaughtering me in the Fantasy Football League, may I just remind them that I didn't take this year's one seriously and that come next season, SOS will claim his rightful place as the King of Fantasy Football

 

Fletch is miles off mate, he won't do anything until next season, he was rushed back from a broken ankle, did his ligaments, and he's miles off.

A fit Fletch will score goals in any side, his record absolutely shows that beyond question.

Being a **** ugly Jock called Fletcher is enough for most fans to write him off, if he was a Spaniard or summat with his record, everyone would want him.

 

You see, person I'm choosing not to name (Boss )! Fletcher will score goals in any side

To be honest mate I couldn't care what a player looks like providing they can do the business on the pitch. We did have Luka Modric after all...

 

Aye, well 1 in 3 in a succession of trollop sides, I do wonder what he could do in a side with top service.

He's a 15 a season striker, and they are rare, he could push that towards 20 in a consistent side, I'm sure.

This season has been a wash out for him, sadly for us.

Hibernian 156 (43)
Burnley 35 (8)
Wolves 61 (22)
Sunderland 48 (14)

Bear in mind injury problems, quality of service, and the fact Wolves used him mainly as a sub, bizarrely, in their relegation season, they are impressive stats.

 

What do you make of Mannone, GG? I'm really struggling to see why Arsenal let him go and kept Fabianski, whose contract's running out at the end of this campaign.

 

He's been phenomenal mate.

None of us were impressed but thought he was a solid number 2 for Westwood, but he came in and was good, and he literally grew game to game.

His command of the box has gone from poor to very, very good, his distribution is as good as anyone's in the league, and in terms of shot stopping, well that's been stunning at times.

He's been a revelation, and rumours are that his dream move to Milan could happen, if we go, I hope it does for him.

Never mind Fabianski mate, Vito is better in every department than the other guy (not even trying to spell it...), but he was young at Arsenal, and young keepers make mistakes.

They absolutely sold the wrong one. We ****ing love Vito, we do well with keepers to be fair.

 

Mate, you are literally stealing my words from the posts I made in January!

I said the exact same - that, with all due respect to Sunderland and his previous sides - if Fletcher got a constant flow of service from more creative players, he'd flourish.

Some players are just natural finishers, they don't contribute much else but if you give them the right service they'll get the job done and that's exactly the type of player Fletcher is in my opinion.

 

Better not come to Spurs, then! Soldado bangs them in with good service. We've not provided any for the past couple of seasons.

 

I'm surprised Soldado hasn't worked, yeah he lacks pace, but he has always been a goalscorer, I watched him from back at Getafe, and he always had goals in him.

The Getafe side he was in, under Laudrup, played similar football to Spurs, I thought he'd outscore Negredo easily.

 

Talking a few years back but Mannone looked good when he was thrown into the first team at Arsenal after injuries to their first team keepers and I thought he performed well then.

Some keepers are just unlucky in the positions they can sometimes find themselves in. Cudicini during his Chelsea days is another prime example, WAY too good to have been a back up. Casillas currently at Madrid. Friedel, even at 76 years old is still a half decent keeper and can likely make one or two first teams in the League.

 

Thats impressive, particular because he has never scored 15 goals in a season, even in Scotland and that is particularly damming, especially when Billy McKay has a better record in Scottish football, wonder what he could do for a top side, what you think SOS, shall we sign up Billy McKay (who outscored Gary Hooper last year)!

Fletcher is a good striker for lower tier sides but never spurs quality unless we go back to the 90's when we used to scramble around trying to find the funds to sign Rosenthal, we could have done with a player like Fletcher then to add a touch of class and that tells you how desperate we where!

 

Couldn't agree more

Fletcher is more than a goalscorer, he does have a smashing first touch, his one touch play is very good.

He's not a drop deep and spray balls striker or owt, but he's more than just a goalscorer, for me he's the type of player Spurs have needed for years, he's like Bent with a touch, if that makes sense, the midfielders you've had over the years, a one touch playing goalscorer is what you've lacked.