| In round three of the UEFA
Cup, Tottenham were paired with the club that had knocked
them out of the previous season’s Cup Winners Cup -
Bayern Munich. On a bitterly cold night in the Olympia
Stadion, the Germans won the first leg 1-0 with Michael
Rummenigge’s 85th minute goal settling it. At the
time, Bayern, whose side also included Karl-Heinz
Rummenigge (Michael’s older brother), Belgian
international keeper Jean Marie Pfaff and Dieter Hoeness,
thought that the one goal would be enough to see them
safely into the quarter finals. However, the second leg
saw Tottenham win for the only time in December, Mark
Falco scoring four minutes from time with a shot that
went in off the post for a 2-0 margin, after Archie had
earlier wiped out Bayern’s lead, giving Tottenham a
2-1 aggregate win. The
European win aside, December was a miserable month for
Spurs. In six League matches two were drawn 0-0 and the
others all ended in defeat, with a total of 14 goals
conceded. They let in four goals on three separate
occasions and two of those were against London rivals. It
was the month which ended any hopes that Tottenham would
make a title challenge as they went into free-fall down
the First Division. A 2-1 defeat at Norwich City was
followed by the first of the goal-less games, a
lacklustre affair against Southampton at White Hart Lane.
The best performance of the afternoon came from Page
Three girl Linda Lusardi, throwing Big Ted Sunday Mirror
teddy bears into the crowd before the start.
The visit to Manchester
United on Friday 16th December was televised live on
BBC1. Tottenham had shirt sponsors for the first time and
it was the start of a long association with Holsten. A
crowd of only 33,000 (well, united weren’t winning
titles in those days) watched the home side run out 4-2
winners with Alan Brazil and Mark Falco (notching his
12th of the season) on target for Spurs. Christmas 1983
was ruined for Spurs fans on Boxing Day. Not only did
Arsenal return to win at the Lane for the second time in
less than two months, but they scored four times in the
process.“Champagne” Charlie Nicholas struck
twice (he’d also scored in the Milk Cup tie and
seemed to specialise in getting goals against us) and
Raphael Meade scored the others. Tottenham’s
consolations came via Graham Roberts and Steve Archibald
as we went down 4-2 (again).
A 0-0 draw was the outcome
of the following day’s trip to Aston Villa, before
Tottenham ended 1983 on a low note with defeat in another
local derby, this time at Upton Park. A crowd of over
30,000 squeezed into West Ham’s Boleyn Ground to see
a 4-1 home win, with three of the Hammers’ goals
coming in a four minute spell in the second half. Gary
Stevens goal was all the Spurs fans had to cheer about.
November had seen Tottenham knocked out of the Milk Cup,
whilst December’s form had destroyed any hopes of
the League title, leaving only the UEFA and FA Cups to go
for as the club entered 1984.
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