Spurs on this day - No 46 in an occasional series

By Dave P
April 20 2005

Although we have never played West Bromwich Albion on the 20th April before we have played them at this stage of the season in the run-in on a number of occasions so we will have a look at a few of those games.

Let’s go back two years when we travelled up to the Hawthorns on 21st April 2003. A crowd of 26,899 saw us defeat relegation doomed W.B.A. by 3 goals to 2 with Robbie Keane scoring twice and Teddy Sheringham getting the other one.

We also played them at the Hawthorns in the late stages of a Division One season in a match on 23rd April 1983. That time a 14,879 crowd saw Steve Archibald score the only goal of the game to give us the points,

In the Double year, 1961, West Bromwich travelled down to White Hart Lane on 29th April and in front of 52,054 paying fans had the temerity to win 2-1. Bobby Smith was the Spurs scorer on that day. The following year , 1962, West Brom came down to White Hart Lane again and repeated the feat, Frank Saul scoring our goal in another 2-1 defeat. If we go back to 1959 however, Bobby Smith was again on the scoresheet. Four times in fact. West Bromwich Albion visited White Hart Lane on the 18th April and this time we won the match 5-0. Johnny Brookes scoring the other goal.

Back in 1930, and in the second division we were to play West Brom, twice in four days over Easter, a practice that was common in those days. Home on Good Friday (18th April) and away on Easter Monday (21st April). Unfortunately we lost both matches going down 2-0 at Home and 4-3 away. The scores at West Bromwich were Frank Osborne and Ted Harper, our third goal coming courtesy of a Finch own goal. As if two games in four days was not enough we actually played three in that period as on the Easter Saturday (19th April) we played hosts to Charlton Athletic winning 3-0, Ted Harper scoring twice and Jimmy Smy getting the third. And to think players moan about playing too many games these days.

Anyway seeing as Fulham did us a favour last night I thought I would put in a word for one of the scorers against West Brom in 1930 (and there is a tenuous West Bromwich link as well). Frank Raymond Osborne was born in Wynberg, South Africa in 1896 and attended the Gymnasium School in Durban before emigrating to England to play for Netley FC in 1911.After a brief spall at Bromley he joined Fulham in November 1921 as a professional scoring on his league debut against Sheffield United. He was the first Fulham player to be capped for England in a match against Ireland at West Bromwich in 1922. Osborne joined spurs for £1500 in January 1924 and went on to score 87 times in 228 first team games before joining Southampton for £450 in 1931. After retiring as a player in 1933 he joined the then chairman of Fulham, John Dean’s blinds company. In 1935 he joined the Board of Fulham where he remained for 30 years including spells as team manager (for which he had to obtain special permission from the FA), general manager and secretary-manager from October 1948 – October 1964, Fulhams longest serving manager in fact. Frank Osborne died in Epsom, Surrey in March 1988

Incidentally, the first time we played West Brom came seven years before we played them in the league and took place at Villa Park in the 1901 FA Cup Semi-final. We won that game 4-0 with Sandy Brown scoring all four goals.

So two of our strikers, Sandy Brown and Bobby Smith, have scored four times in a game against the Baggies. Wouldn’t it be nice if one of our fabulous four were to emulate that feat tonight.