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Here is Brian Judson's preview of the game
Our full record against Cardiff:-
SEASON DIV HOME AWAY
1921-22 1 4-1 1-0
1922-23 1 1-1 3-2
1923-24 1 1-1 1-2
1924-25 1 1-1 2-0
1925-26 1 1-2 1-0
1926-27 1 4-1 2-1
1927-28 1 1-0 1-2
1929-30 2 1-2 0-1
1930-31 2 2-2 0-0
1947-48 2 2-1 3-0
1948-49 2 0-1 1-0
1949-50 2 2-0 1-0
1952-53 1 2-1 0-0
1953-54 1 0-1 0-1
1954-55 1 0-2 2-1
1955-56 1 1-1 0-0
1956-57 1 5-0 3-0
1960-61 1 3-2 2-3
1961-62 1 3-2 1-1
1977-78 2 2-1 0-0
Div Pl. W. D. L. For-Ag Pts
Home 14 7 4 3 29-16 18
Away 14 7 3 4 24-13 17
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TOTAL(Div 1) 28 14 7 7 53-29 35
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Div 2
Home 6 3 1 2 9- 7 7
Away 6 3 2 1 5- 1 8
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TOTAL(Div 2) 12 6 3 3 14- 8 15
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TOTAL(Div 1) 28 14 7 7 53-29 35
TOTAL(Div 2) 12 6 3 3 14- 8 15
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GRAND TOTAL 40 20 10 10 67-37 50
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As can be seen from the above list, Spurs have not played Cardiff City on
a regular basis since the 1960s. The Welsh club were not elected to the
League until the summer of 1920 when Lincoln City were voted out of the
old Division 2 and Cardiff were elected in their place. Cardiff gained
promotion to Division 1 at the first attempt, only failing to lift the
championship on goal average. During the course of the 1920s, Cardiff
achieved some high placings including runners-up to Huddersfield Town in
season 1923-24, again on goal-average. In 1927, Cardiff took the FA Cup
home to South Wales after beating Arsenal 1-0 at Wembley. This was a case
where a match turned on a goalkeeper's error as Lewis, in the Arsenal
goal, somehow managed to allow a hard shot, low and diagonal, to squirm
out of his grasp and trickle over the goal-line.
But less than two years later, Cardiff dropped out of top flight football,
the passage of another two seasons saw them plunge to the old Third
Division (South) and at the end of season 1933-34, they were rock-bottom
of the Third Division (South), conceding 105 goals, scoring only 57. They
began a slow improvement but were still stuck in that section when war
broke out in 1939. But in 1946-47, Cardiff romped away with the Third
Division (South) by a margin of 9 points. They regained their position in
the top flight in 1951-52 and remained there until being relegated at the
end of season 1961-62. Since then, they have spent much of their time
shuttling between the bottom three flights of professional football. They
have, however, been plagued by thugs who profess to support the team but
who seem to appear whenever there is any trouble associated with the
Bluebirds. Welsh football has been in the doldrums for far too long since
Swansea City plunged to the nether regions. It would be good to see a
Welsh team climbing up the pyramid again.
Spurs have only played Cardiff a few times in the time I was able to
follow them at closer range than I do nowadays. One occasion was, of
course, in our promotion campaign of season 1977-78. We drew 0-0 in
Cardiff in September 1977 but won the return game at Tottenham 2-1, thanks
to two goals by John Duncan, in January 1978,
We also played Cardiff in the FA Cup in January 1977, which we lost, 1-0,
at Ninian Park.
Cardiff's fortunes have improved since they were purchased by Sam Hammam,
the former owner of Wimbledon, and his appointment of Lennie Lawrence, as
their Manager. Spurs fans will remember Lennie Lawrence for his spell as
manager of Charlton Athletic between 1982 and 1991 when Charlton seemed to
survive battles of relegation from the top flight. The Bluebirds are
clearly recovering from the days they looked likely to drop out of the
Football League, which would have reduced the Welsh teams to just Swansea
City and Wrexham.
Spurs, as we all know, fell over at the final stage of last season's
competition. We are now about to play Cardiff City, fresh from an awful
performance against Middlesbrough. I watched the very brief highlights of
that match and was annoyed to see that the defence failed to pick up the
Middlesbrough players. If Spurs do not wake up soon, I hope they will be
forced to watch endless replays of Arsenal's victory against CharltonEd: Brian may be referring to Leeds here - but what's the difference,
where our lazy lot may finally appreciate that even superstars have to
break into a sweat if they want to win silverware.
I pray for a Spurs win but remain pessimistic, if only because of memories
of games such as Burnley in the same competition in season 1982-83, when
Burnley were fighting an unsuccessful battle to avoid relegation from the
old Division 2 and they thumped us 4-1 at Tottenham! But if Tottenham do
get their act together, they should be capable of winning. Nothing less
than a victory will be acceptable! (I know there are no replays and it
will be settled on the night but I would prefer it was won in the best
style possible rather than taking penalties to settle the issue.)
COME ON YOU BLOODY LAZY SPURS!
Cheers, Brian
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