Those Glory, Glory Nights

"IT’S MAGNIFICENT TO BE IN EUROPE"

As we have no European football to look forward to this season, I thought this would be a great opportunity to look back on my first European match under the lights at the Lane.

The late, great Bill Nicholson once said “It's magnificent to be in Europe, and this club - a club like Tottenham Hotspur - if we're not in Europe...we're nothing. We're nothing."

Before I got to see a European tie at White Hart Lane, I was regaled with tales of those glory, glory nights by my Spurs mad grandfather, uncles and older cousin.

They had memories of the 1961-62 European Cup run that Spurs had been on after winning the English League and FA Cup Double in 1960-61.

It started in September 1961, Spurs played Polish club Górnik Zabrze. 

The Polish press called Spurs "no angels" for their tough tackling in the first leg, in Poland. In response, three fans dressed up as angels in white togas and sheets for the return leg.

The White Hart Lane crowd chanted "Glory, Glory Hallelujah" to support the team. Spurs won the match 8–1 and so won the tie by 10-5 having trailed from the first leg 4-2.

The Spurs manager Bill Nicholson noted that the hymn took over the stadium like a religious wave. 

It turned into the club anthem "Glory, Glory Tottenham Hotspur".

(What a wonderful piece of club history which many fans, including me, wouldn't have known - Ed.)

ALL WHITE ON THE NIGHT 

I also heard tales of Spurs wearing an all white kit in European matches, and this added to my longing to see a home European tie. 

At the time European matches were played under weaker stadium floodlights compared to modern standards. So Mr Nicholson thought that an all white kit would be better for visibility. Players would be able to pick out team mates more clearly.

What Mr Nicholson suggested, was always right according to my Spurs watching family. It took me until I was 14 to call him Bill, such was the reverence that he was held in. 

The European Cup campaign ended in a glorious defeat at the hands of a Eusebio inspired Benfica. The first leg in Lisbon was won 3-1 by the Portuguese side and the second leg saw Spurs win 2-1. So an aggregate loss of 4-3. 

It was a glorious defeat and a tie that got my family’s pulses racing. Spurs should have won the tie, as 64,448 packed White Hart Lane.

THIS WAS ROTTERDAM, NOT JUST ANYWHERE 

Then there was the European Cup Winners Cup triumph in Rotterdam against Atletico Madrid in 1963. 

Dyson’s match, with his hat trick, making Spurs the first British club to win any European Trophy.

The stories, the legends and the glory, glory nights were shared with me time and time again.

You should have been there that night they said, when Spurs beat Glasgow Rangers at the Lane by 5 goals to 2, or thrashed Slovan Bratislava by 6 - 0, both in the Cup Winners Cup.

My appetite was more than whetted, I couldn’t wait to see White Hart Lane under the lights on one of those glory, glory European nights.

THE CHIVERS THUNDERBOLT

The first European nights of my Spurs supporting life came in the 1971/72 season. But it was TV only. 

It was the first time that I had the opportunity of tuning in to see Spurs in continental competitions. I had been too young for previous European odysseys.  

This was courtesy of the winning of the League Cup the season before against Aston Villa at Wembley. Two goals from Martin Chivers had secured the trophy and qualification for the new European competition, the UEFA Cup.

Another first for Spurs was delivered when they won that inaugural UEFA Cup, beating Wolves over two legs. The full English final brought the second European trophy but I had to be satisfied with watching highlights on the box. 

The tie ended 3-2 to Spurs on aggregate, with Martin Chivers again the standout player, mainly because of his thunderbolt goal in the first leg at Molineux.

It gave Spurs a 2-1 first leg lead. The second leg ended 1-1, with Alan Mullery the Spurs scorer, as they captured the cup. 

THE GLORY GAME 

October of that same year saw the publication of the book The Glory Game by Hunter Davies. It was a remarkable glimpse into the life and times of Tottenham Hotspur for the whole season of 1971/72. 

Not many holds were barred. It was a gripping read and remains so even now. 

When the book was released, I couldn’t wait to get a copy, but my older cousin beat me to it and I borrowed his edition. I got the paperback version in the Summer of 1973, and still have it now. 

As a 12 year old football fanatic, I was completely enthralled by The Glory Game, and noted that once again that word 'glory' had cropped up. 

The Topical Times Football Annual and weekly Shoot magazines became my regular reading and I absorbed every single word. 

MY EUROPEAN DEBUT

Still I hadn’t seen a live European night at the Lane, but I knew that as defending champions of the UEFA Cup in the 1972/73 season, it could be my chance.

It would be the quarter final tie against Vitoria Setubal, first leg, on March 7th 1973, which would see me under the famous lights for the first time. 

A real bonus was seeing the League Cup, shown to the crowd by skipper Martin Peters. Spurs had won it four days previously with a 1-0 win against Norwich City at Wembley. The combover king, Ralph Coates scored the winning goal in what was very poor game.

In that UEFA Cup match we ended up winning by a single goal from the unlikeliest of sources, Ray Evans, on as substitute for the legendary Alan Gilzean. 

What a vital goal it turned out to be in a very tight match, and a close tie overall. 

THEY SHOULD’VE MARKED EVANS

The opposition employed a low block before low block had even been invented and we managed a late headed goal, from one of Martin Chivers’ long throw-ins. 

Chivers throw in to Peters, nodded on to Evans was then headed into the bottom corner at the Park Lane end. 

Route one is sometimes the best one; not very Spurs, but sometimes needs must. 

So a slender lead to take to the second leg in Portugal, but it mattered little to me that night. I had made my European debut and that was all that mattered. 

The pitch had that glittering dampness about it. The smell of the grass seemed so much stronger on the night shift. A bit of a mud fest in the middle but nothing like the Baseball Ground, Derby with more sand than Blackpool beach. 

The crowd noise echoed around the stadium and carried away on the evening air, the all white, gleaming kit and big Pat in his blue goalkeepers top. 

Not the greatest ever game, but one I will never forget and the first of many glory, glory nights under those lights. 

The two legged semi final against Liverpool would be next, but for now it was just great to have broken my European duck and seen a home win.

Anthony Heard has his own substack column and is the author of My Purple Patch - Living with ITP