Bill Nicholson’s fantastic team of the early 1970s played 34 times in Europe. We created history by lifting the UEFA Cup in 1972 - the first club to win two European trophies, following our Cup Winners' Cup triumph in 1963 - reached the semi-finals in 1973 and then the final again in 1974.
Martin Chivers played in 32 of those matches, scoring 22 goals, a total that remained unsurpassed for almost 40 years. He scored twice in the first leg of the 1972 final against Wolves and, approaching 50 years on, has an almost photographic memory of those ‘glory, glory’ nights, from the first game against Keflavik of Iceland back in September, 1971 right up to the ill-fated 1974 final loss over two legs against Feyenoord.
Sixteen of Martin’s European matches were away – ties were played over two legs - and as we return to Belgrade to take on Crvena Zvezda (Red Star) in the Champions League this week, he places his trip to face the same team in the same Rajko Mitic Stadium in 1972 in the top five of his toughest away trips.
Believe it or not, our UEFA Cup-defending squad of 1972/73 played Olympiacos in the second round and then Red Star in the third round - 47 years on, we play the same two opponents in this season’s Champions League group stage.
UEFA Cup winners in 1976, European Cup winners in 1991, Red Star, representing the former Yugoslavia, were a threat in Europe at the time. They impressed in the first leg at the Lane although we were clinical in front of goal and strikes from Martin and Alan Gilzean, both created by Martin Peters, saw us secure a 2-0 lead to take to Belgrade.
The second leg was a different story. Under pressure from the first whistle, we defended superbly collectively. Red Star broke through when Vojin Lazarevic opened the scoring at the start of the second half but we held on for a 1-0 loss on the night and 2-1 victory on aggregate. Reporting for the Daily Express, Norman Giller, a renowned Spurs fan, wrote at the time ‘Tottenham kept their grip on the UEFA Cup with one of the greatest defensive displays I have ever seen from a British team in Europe’.
“It was like the Alamo!” recalled Martin, joint-third with Harry Kane in our all-time goalscoring list with 174 goals from 367 appearances in all competitions. “The stadium was magnificent, 70,000 fans in there, an incredible atmosphere. We were all defending. I think I was the only one left upfield, trying to hold up the ball.
“They had a fantastic left winger, Dragan Dzajic, seen as one of the best players from the old Yugoslavia (capped 85 times 1964-78, he was described by Pele as the ‘Balkan miracle’) and their captain. They called him ‘The Dragon’. I’ve never known Joe Kinnear to be under the cosh so much. He was running back towards our goal looking over his shoulder, not knowing which way to turn. Typical Joe though, he came back into our dressing room afterwards and started looking in his pocket saying, ‘are you in there, Dragon?’, that was Joe!
“They had two overlapping full-backs, and we’d not come across that before. Normally full-backs on the continent didn’t come over the half-way line but they were just like our full-backs, Cyril and Joe. They attacked us all the time. It was constant pressure, they scored a late goal and it was pandemonium. We could have been overrun if we had lapsed in any area, but we held out.”
So 34 games, 22 wins and just six defeats, one UEFA Cup triumph, semi-finals and winners between 1971/72 and 1973/74, 22 goals in his 32 matches, how does Martin sum up those golden days?
“That team was like a family,” he said. “We played with a small squad, we all knew each other, we all knew our strengths, we stuck together and we were lucky to stay away from serious injuries, even when we 75 per cent fit we still played, they strapped us up and we went out there.
“We loved the travelling and the Club looked after us so well, second to none, the hotels, chartered flights, it was brilliant. They were such exciting times. We scored a load of goals in Europe, not just me, everyone. It was tremendous. They were such great days and we loved every moment.”
'Big Chiv' - a few facts
- Martin is joint-third on our all-time goalscoring list with 174 goals from 367 appearances from 1968-1976 - he's just been joined on 174 by Harry Kane
- Martin's total comes despite being sidelined from September 1968 until August 1969 with a serious knee injury
- Martin topped our European goalscoring list with 22 goals from 1974-2013, when he was overtaken by Jermain Defoe. Harry Kane now tops the list on 28
- Martin remains our record goalscorer in the League Cup with 23
- Martin scored 13 goals in 24 caps for England