Milan memories | 1972 | Steve Perryman sinks the Rossoneri

Of all the nights in his record 854 appearances, this was the night for our legendary former skipper, Steve Perryman.

Two fantastic strikes from distance turned around the UEFA Cup semi-final, first leg at White Hart Lane after the Italian giants had taken the lead against the run of play in the first half - Romeo Benetti scored for Milan in the 25th minute and, with away goals counting double and the Italians the masters of the defensive game, we faced a mountain to climb.

Enter 'Stevie P'.

Just 20 at the time, he fired home the equaliser from the edge of the box on 33 minutes before volleying the winner on the night from 30 yards midway through the second half. Two weeks later, he turned provider for Alan Mullery’s thunderbolt as we drew the second leg 1-1 in the San Siro to progress to the final.

Now, as we prepare to face Milan again, this time in the second leg of our UEFA Champions League, Round of 16 tie, with the aggregate scoreline currently 1-0 in favour of the Italians, we re-run an interview with Steve that we first published on the 50th anniversary of this match in April last year...

“50 years ago? Wow,” said Steve. “This stands as my personal night. Picking up the FA Cup, that’s a team night, a Club night. You could get above yourself and say, ‘I captained the team to that, did this, did that’, but, actually, I didn’t. But on that night, I made a difference.”

Not that any personal euphoria lasted for long...

Less than an hour after the final whistle on a night of all nights for this all-time Spurs great, and he was brought back down to earth with a bump.

“I was always last getting changed and when I did finally get changed, the dressing room was completely empty,” he recalled. “I went in the treatment room to get a bit of peace and quiet, laid on an empty bed and all of a sudden the doctor came in, Dr Brian Curtin, and he looked in the mirror, did his tie, washed his hands and said into the mirror, ‘that Bill Nicholson, he’s a magician’.

“I thought, ‘he must be talking to me’ as there was no-one else in the room. I said, ‘why’s that, Doc?’ and he pointed at me and said, ‘because he very nearly didn’t pick you tonight’. Was that Bill Nick playing mind games? Was it the Doc doing his own bit of persuading that I wasn’t as good as I thought I was after scoring two goals? Who knows? But it typified to me that we were all in it together.

“So, it just came and went, that Milan game. Although I’m delighted it did come! It was an era where people just didn’t say, ‘well done’. If they said nothing, it meant you must have done well. In the name of keeping you humble, tough love, the doctor was either sent in by Bill or Eddie (Baily, Bill’s assistant) or both, or it was off his own back, but it was to let me know, or put into my mind, that I was almost left out! When you think about it, I couldn’t have been left out, we were so short of players, we had to get Alan Mullery back from his loan at Fulham! It was a right comment, but typical of the era.”

Steve admitted at the time, ‘I’m not exactly noted for my goals’, but, 50 years on, he explained how he was able to have such an impact that night.

“Milan had come to get a 0-0, but all of a sudden, they were 1-0 up,” he added. “That wasn’t the plan! What do they do then? Go for a 2-0, get it over with? They just defended with their lives and, defending in that era... Italian goalkeepers didn’t come off their line, they just didn’t, not like Pat Jennings, so if he’s not going to come, the defenders have to be so tight on the likes of Martin Chivers, Alan Gilzean, Martin Peters, Mike England from set pieces, so that line of last defence is two or three yards from goal, rather than being 10 or 12.

“So, as a midfielder, there is room to play with, things drop in there, Gilly, Big Chiv competing for headers, and where the ball dropping down might have been 30, 35 yards from goal, for my first goal, it was right on the edge of the box. It was a combination of how they defended and that their goal did them a bit of a disservice.

“My job was defensive midfielder, in between Mullers, who had come back from a loan at Fulham, and Martin Peters. I was on the cover for them, so it wasn’t like I was running beyond them, I was still coming from a more defensive position, but it was another 10, 15 yards further forward than it would have been in a ‘normal’ English game. That gave me the chance to have three, four, five shots at goal. It was my night.”