Tottenham Hotspur host Southampton at White Hart Lane on Saturday 4th May 2013 (KO 15:00) in the 36th round of 2012-13 Premier League matches (35th game for Spurs).
Spurs come into the game in 5th place on 62 points with Southampton in 13th place on 39 points. This will be the 180th time the two teams have met each other and the first time at the Lane since December 2004.
Spurs and Southampton were two of England's top teams at the start of the 20th Century with the Saints reaching the 1900 & 1902 FA Cup Finals and Spurs going one better by winning the competition in 1901, thus becoming the only non-League club to achieve the feat since the formation of the Football League in 1888-89.
The first meeting between the clubs came in December 1893 and the friendly finished as a 1-0 win to Southampton, Four more friendlies were played over the next four years and the first competitive match was played in March 1897 with Southampton drawing their home Southern League fixture 1-1 and Spurs drawing their home fixture 2-2 a month later.
The clubs were regular opponents in both the Southern League and Western League until 1908, when Tottenham switched to become a Football League club. Those non-League encounters were usually hard fought affairs and Southampton had slightly the better of things overall.
The first FA Cup encounter between the clubs came in January 1902 with holders Spurs held 1-1 in the 1st Round (today's 3rd Round) at White Hart Lane. The replay was also drawn 2-2 and a second replay was held at Elm Park, Reading with Southampton winning 2-1. The Saints made it all the way to the Final that season before losing to Sheffield United in a replay.
Tottenham played Southampton four times during World War One in the London Combination and won three of those games to Southampton's one. The Spurs home games were played at Highbury and Homerton, as White Hart Lane had been taken-over by the army.
Southampton, who were founded in 1885 started-out as St. Mary’s Church Young Men’s Association and moved to The Dell in 1898, joined the newly-formed Football League Division Three in season 1920-21 and won promotion to Division Two at the first attempt. They remained in the Second Division for 31 consecutive seasons.
The first League meeting between Tottenham and Southampton came in September 1928 with Spurs drawing 1-1 at The Dell and winning 3-2 at White Hart Lane in January 1929.
The clubs played a further eight seasons in Division Two prior to World War Two and Spurs won 9 and drew 3 of the 18 games played during this period. Ten games were played during World War Two with Spurs winning five, Southampton winning two and three games drawn.
The first of three key player transfers from Southampton to Tottenham came in 1949 when right-back Alf Ramsey joined Spurs. The General would become a huge part of Spurs successive Second and First Division Championship winning teams in the early 1950's and play for England 32 times.
Tottenham and Southampton resumed their matches in Division Two in the four seasons after World War Two before Spurs won promotion to Division One for the 1950-51 season. There was also an FA Cup 6th Round match in January 1948 at the Dell which Spurs won 1-0.
Southampton won promotion to the First Division in season 1966-67 for the first time in their history and Spurs won both fixtures 5-3 at home and 1-0 away. The Saints kept their First Division status until season 1973-74.
The second key transfer came in January 1968 when Spurs bought Southampton centre forward Martin Chivers for a then British record fee of £125,000. Spurs striker Frank Saul moved in the opposite direction as part of the deal. Big Chiv took a while to find his form, partnering first Jimmy Greaves and later Alan Gilzean but once he came back from a broken leg, he became England's finest attacker in the early to mid-1970's.
October 1968 saw the first Football League Cup match between the clubs and Spurs won the 5th Round match 1-0 at the Lane.
Tottenham were relegated for season 1977-78 and both Second Division matches with Southampton ended as 0-0 draws, the latter giving both clubs promotion to the First Division, along with Champions Bolton Wanderers. The 28 games played in Division One from 1978-79 to 1991-92 resulted in 12 wins for Tottenham, 9 wins for Southampton and 7 draws.
During this period, the clubs met twice in the FA Cup with a win apiece and once in the League Cup with a win for the Saints. There were also two games played in the Screen Sports Super Cup, a competition which took the place of European matches for English clubs which were banned.
Spurs won both of these games 2-1 at home and 3-1 away.
Both Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton were founder members of the Premier League in 1992-93, but the Saints were relegated at the end of the 2004-05 season. Spurs had the slight edge during these encounters with 11 wins to 10 with 5 matches drawn. The very first Premier League game for both clubs was a 0-0 draw on 15th August 1992 at The Dell.
A fifth round FA Cup replay in March 1995 saw an amazing hat-trick by Ronnie Rosenthal to give Spurs a 6-2 win. Southampton won the last FA Cup meeting in January 2003 4-0 at St. Mary's Stadium, which had become the Saints new home in August 2001.
In May 2007, Spurs secured the services of the third key player from Southampton when Welsh left-sided player Gareth Bale was signed initially for £5,000,000 with an additional £2,000,000 paid in add-ons. Last season, Tottenham's Spanish attacking midfielder Iago Falque was loaned to the Saints, who won promotion back to the Premier League as runners-up in the Championship.
The Premier League match at St. Mary's Stadium in October 2012 resulted in a 2-1 win for Spurs. Gareth Bale opened the scoring after 15 minutes with Clint Dempsey adding a second for Spurs after 39 minutes. The Saints second half goal was scored by Jay Rodriguez.
Overall, Spurs have won 76, Southampton have won 58 and 45 of the 179 matches between the two clubs have been drawn.
They Played for Spurs & Saints....
Paul Allen
Gareth Bale
Lee Barnard
Dave Beasant
Joe Blake
Kevin Bond (Saints player, Spurs asst manager)
Tommy Cable
Martin Chivers
George Clawley
Peter Crouch
Ian Culverhouse
Calum Davenport
Alf Day
Ally Dick
Kerry Dixon
Dickie Dowsett
Jack Elkes
Harry Evans (Saints player, Spurs asst manager)
Iago Falque
Tommy Forecast
Alex Glen
John Gorman (Spurs player, asst manager at both clubs)
Alf Hawley
Glenn Hoddle (Spurs player, manager at both clubs)
John Hollowbread
David Howells
Doug Hunt
Philip Ifil
Ernie Jones
Joe Jordan (Saints player, Spurs coach)
John Joyce
Kasey Keller
John McConnachie
Frank Osborne
Tomáš Pekhart
Alf Ramsey
Grzegorz Rasiak
Harry Redknapp (manager with both clubs)
Jamie Redknapp
Matt Reilly
Ron Reynolds (also Saints scout)
Dean Richards
Graham Roberts
Dick Rowley
Neil Ruddock
John Saintly (Spurs player, Saints coach)
Frank Saul
Graeme Souness (Spurs player, Saints manager)
Archie Turner
Wilf Waller
