Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City 1967/68

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR 1  CITY 3

League Division 1

4th May 1968

Attendance 51,242

Scorers

City Bell(40, 46), Summerbee(74)

Spurs Greaves(84 pen)

Ref L Callaghan

City Mulhearn, Book, Pardoe, Doyle, Heslop,  Oakes, Lee, Bell, Summerbee, Coleman, Young - sub Kennedy(unused)

Spurs Jennings, Beal, Knowles, Mullery, England, Mackay, Robertson, Greaves, Chivers, Venables, Gilzean - sub Jones

A GOAL FROM COLIN BELL

Adapted from Mike Doyles Biography 'Blue Blood'  - White Hart Lane hadn't been one of our favourite grounds in recent years. Spurs were up for the game and they had a damned good side. Martin Chivers, a big powerful striker was then at his peak and there was also their famous old warhorse, Dave Mackay to contend with in the middle of the park, while Jimmy Greaves was still banging in goals for fun. It was just the sort of match you don't want at such a crucial stage but at least we could go there knowing the City fans would be there in force to cheer us on. We knew exactly what we had to do and that was go for the throat and try and hit them so hard they wouldn't be able to recover. We set our stall out to win that game in the quickest possible time. For the first half hour we virtually played Tottenham off the park and Colin Bell gave one of the finest displays I have ever seen ... in those first 30 minutes I don't think Spurs had one single shot ...

We'd give the North London outfit a real hammering, we were three up and coasting towards victory by the time the interval arrived. But like a distance runner  that hits the front too soon the pace we had set ourselves had been too great during the first 45 minutes. As the second half wore on we began to tire dramatically ... Spurs started to build up a head of steam ... Chivers hit the woodwork twice... Spurs were awarded a penalty for a George Heslop handball ad it was 1-3. For the final 20 minutes Spurs put us under fantastic pressure but that was the end of the scoring. We'd sweated blood and tears to ensure we didn't throw the title away. Joe [Mercer] went spare with Heslop about the handball. George explained "Jimmy Greaves caught me on the funny bone and my hand just flashed out and flicked the ball". We all started to laugh, Joe just wiped his brow "You're a fucking liar George, but we've won, we've won!