Fri 17 February 2023, 12:45
Tottenham HotspurWelcome back to our special feature for 2022/23 - 1 from 30 - as we continue to mark 30 years of the Premier League.
English football's new dawn kicked-off on the weekend of 15/16 August, 1992 as the FA Premier League replaced Barclays League Division One, ending a structure of Division One-Four that had been in place since 1958. Thirty years on, the Premier League is amongst the most watched and most valuable sporting leagues in the world.
In this series, we're featuring a match from those 30 years that corresponds with our next fixture - next up, our old rivals West Ham at home, a fixture that has yielded 141 goals, 10 red cards and no shortage of drama in 53 matches in the Premier League era. Roll on number 54...
Spurs 3-2 West Ham - 15 September, 2002
Anthony Gardner wasn't noted for his goalscoring prowess during his time at Spurs - but he timed one of his three goals to perfection to beat West Ham in a typical thriller between the teams in the Premier League at White Hart Lane over 20 years ago.
A tall, elegant defender who earned an England cap in 2004, 'TC' made 144 appearances for us between 2001-2007 with two of his goals in the Premier League - the second against Everton in August, 2007 - and the other in the League Cup in a 6-0 win at Oldham in September, 2004.
His first goal proved the matchwinner as this derby exploded in the final half-hour in N17 with five goals, a red card, a penalty and TC's late winner! We took the lead twice - Simon Davies from Matt Etherington's pass (62 minutes), Teddy Sheringham's penalty (71, Ian Pearce sent off for the challenge) - only for West Ham to reply on both occasions. With two minutes left, up stepped an unlikely hero... TC strolled out of defence, kept going and eventually took aim from 25 yards, his shot deflecting home off Gary Breen and beyond the dive of David James.
The result took us back up to second in the Premier League after a bright start had seen us top the table after four matches. We were still third after 10 games, but a dip in form in October/November dropped us down to ninth, and although we rallied back to seventh, we ended up 10th after a run of two wins in our last 11 matches.
Spurs: Keller, Taricco (Thatcher), Ziege, Gardner, Perry (Doherty), Davies, Redknapp, Bunjevcevic, Etherington (Iversen), Sheringham, Keane.
