Frozen-off fixtures to European headaches – our previous games in June and July

By the time this unprecedented 2019/20 campaign finishes at the weekend, we’ll have been playing Premier League football for almost a full calendar year.

Little could anyone have known when we kicked-off at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with a 3-1 win over Aston Villa on 10 August, 2019, that our season-ending fixture away to Crystal Palace would be taking place on 26 July, 2020.

As a consequence of this year’s outbreak of COVID-19 and subsequent disruption to the sporting calendar, the last few weeks have brought many firsts, including our first-ever Premier League fixture in June, outright maiden league outing in July and the first north London derby during that period, while Sunday’s trip to Selhurst Park predictably represents the first time we’ve finished a season in the seventh month of the year.

Competitive matches in June and July are historically rare, but not totally unheard of – here’s a look at the small handful of times we’ve taken to the pitch during the summer months prior to this season...

Spurs 2-1 Fulham

7 June, 1941 (Regional League South)

It’s been widely remarked that this year’s coronavirus pandemic has caused the largest sporting disruption in peacetime and indeed you have to go back to the war years to find the first instance of a senior competitive match for us in June.

The outbreak of World War II in September, 1939, caused the abandonment of the regular Football League season after only three games and regional league competitions were set up for the remainder of the 1939/40 campaign as life changed completely for players and supporters alike.

Winners of the wartime Regional League South ‘C’ in 1940, we contested the Regional League South during the following season, 1940/41, kicking-off on 31 August, 1940, with a 3-2 home defeat to West Ham. We played frequent league games until the turn of the year but then didn’t play again in the competition until 15 March, 1941, with January and early February taken up by the early stages of our participation in the London War Cup, while matches also took place in the Football League War Cup during February and into March. The resumption of Regional League South duties ended with the season extending into June for our final match of the campaign, a 2-1 home win over Fulham on 7 June, 1941. Ralph Ward scored a penalty, with Ivor Broadis also on target for us.

Spurs 1-1 Barnsley

7 June, 1947 (Football League, Second Division)

Prior to this year’s Premier League matches against Manchester United and West Ham, the only time we’d ever played a league fixture in the month of June was back in 1947, when we rounded off our 1946/47 Second Division campaign with a 1-1 home draw with Barnsley.

In the Football League’s first season back in its national format following the end of World War II, the sporting calendar was decimated by one of the harshest winters on record, with large snow drifts and sub-zero temperatures arriving in January and causing widespread disruption to the entire country. Roads and train lines were cut off, power supplies were down, livestock couldn’t survive and vegetables were frozen into the ground, causing concerns at one stage about a shortage of food. Radio and television broadcasts were also affected along with most major industries, and when the thaw finally hit in March, widespread flooding caused further misery.

Our Second Division season wasn’t too badly affected with matches still sporadically taking place during early 1947 – the longest we went without playing a game was 18 days between a 1-0 loss at Manchester City on 1 February and a goalless draw at Burnley on 18 February.

Nevertheless, those freezing conditions, combined with a government ban on midweek matches during that season in an attempt to help the economy right itself after the war, meant we had one outstanding fixture left to play as we moved into June, with Ronnie Dix on target from the penalty spot on 7 June as we shared the spoils with Barnsley to finish sixth in the overall standings. Ernie Jones, a recent signing from Swansea Town, made his debut for us in that game.

Spurs in the Intertoto Cup

25 June to 22 July, 1995

Our much-maligned venture into the UEFA Intertoto Cup took place during June and July of 1995... never to be repeated!

The whole thing was shrouded in controversy. Hot on the heels of a seventh-place finish in the 1994/95 Premier League season, we were one of three English teams to agree to play in the summer competition – Sheffield Wednesday and Wimbledon being the other two – with the footballing authorities keen for top-flight clubs from this country to take part.

With most of our senior players unavailable, we were forced to cobble together a scratch squad of up-and-comers and more experienced emergency loan signings, including one Alan Pardew, with the likes of Stephen Carr, Kevin Watson, Andy Turner and Steve Slade among our young players taking part. Added to that, the unavailability of White Hart Lane following its use for American Football matches meant we had to play our ‘home’ games at Brighton’s Goldstone Ground.

Under these bizarre circumstances, our makeshift side didn’t fare well. We lost 2-0 at home to FC Luzern of Switzerland on 25 June, 1995, before goals from loanee Ian Sampson and John Hendry gave us our only victory of the competition, a 2-1 win away to Slovenian outfit Rudar Velenge on 1 July, 1995. A 2-1 home defeat to Swedish side Osters IF on 16 July, 1995, with Gerry McMahon on target, preceded an 8-0 humbling by FC Cologne in Germany on 22 July, 1995.

Along with Wimbledon, we were subsequently banned from UEFA competitions for fielding an under-strength side, but this was later overturned. Although technically competitive European fixtures, the record books do not classify our Intertoto Cup matches as first team games – in fact, on the same day we lost to Cologne, our first team played a pre-season friendly against Danish side Silkeborg. We never competed in the Intertoto Cup again and, in 2009, it was amalgamated into the early qualifying rounds of the UEFA Europa League.

Spurs in the Barclays Asia Trophy

July, 2009, and July, 2013

While we’ve competed in numerous pre-season friendly tournaments over the years, the only occasions prior to this season where we’ve featured in Premier League-affiliated competitions during July have been in 2009 and 2013.

The Premier League Asia Trophy, known during our tenure as the Barclays Asia Trophy, was introduced in 2003 and takes place every other summer. Although falling into the category of a pre-season friendly tournament and thus not counting towards our competitive first team match records, it’s said to be the only Premier League-affiliated competition held outside of the UK.

We won the trophy in 2009, initially seeing off West Ham 1-0 on 29 July before beating Hull City 3-0 in the final two days later, both games taking place in Beijing. Returning in 2013, we lost 3-1 to Sunderland in Hong Kong on 24 July before beating South China 6-0 in the third place play-off, again in Hong Kong, on 27 July.

Spurs 0-2 Liverpool

1 June, 2019 (Champions League Final)

Of course, our most recent competitive first team fixture in June prior to this season took place only last summer.

After an epic run through the UEFA Champions League, including a dramatic draw away to Barcelona in the last match of the group stage to qualify for the knockouts, then sensational two-legged ties with Borussia Dortmund, Manchester City and Ajax, we made it to the final of the competition for the first time in our history.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to be on the sweltering night of 1 June, 2019, in Madrid, as Liverpool ran out 2-0 winners.