please log in to view this image Tottenham Hotspur host Bolton Wanderers (one of the 12 founder members of the Football League in 1888-89) in the 6th round of the FA Cup at White Hart Lane on Saturday 17th March 2012. Spurs come into the game in third place in the table on 53 points, while Bolton have struggled this season and are in 17th place in the table on 23 points. Tottenham beat Cheltenham 3-0 at the Lane in the FA Cup third round and Watford 1-0 away in the fourth round. The fifth round game at Stevenage was drawn 0-0 with Spurs winning the replay 3-1. Bolton drew 2-2 at Macclesfield in the FA Cup third round and won the replay 2-0. They then beat Swansea City 2-1 at home in the fourth round and Millwall 2-0 away in the fifth round. This will be the 104th time the two teams have met and the 12th time in the FA Cup. The first meeting came at Northumberland Park in April 1898 when Spurs were playing in the Southern League in a friendly which was drawn 2-2. A further friendly was played at the same venue in November 1899 which Spurs won 4-0. The clubs first met in Football League action during Tottenham's first season in the competition with Spurs winning both matches 2-1 at home and 1-0 away during 1908-09. Both clubs were promoted to the First Division the next season and Spurs drew 1-1 at White Hart Lane and won 2-0 at Burnden Park. The first FA Cup meeting came in the 2nd round (today's 4th round) in season 1924-25 with Bolton earning a 1-1 draw at White Hart Lane but losing their home replay 1-0. Bolton had the best of the first Football League Cup meeting between the clubs, winning 6-1 at home in the 4th round in November 1996. Spurs got a 2-2 home draw in the first Premier League meeting in December 1995 and followed this with a 3-2 away win in March 1996. During the 2009-10 season, Spurs took four points out of six off Bolton with a 2-2 away draw at the Reebok and a 1-0 win at the Lane. The teams were also drawn together in the 5th round of the FA Cup with Spurs drawing 1-1 away and finishing the job 4-0 at the Lane, which included two Bolton own goals. Bolton won last season's fixture at the Reebok Stadium in November 4-2 with a Kevin Davies brace and goals from Gretar Steinsson and Martin Petrov while Tottenham's goals came from Alan Hutton and Roman Pavlyuchenko. The return game at White Hart Lane in February 2001 resulted in a 2-1 win for Spurs. Rafael van der Vaart scored a 6th minute penalty but Bolton equalised through Daniel Sturridge, on loan from Chelsea, in the 55th minute. Niko Kranjcar's injury time thunderbolt ensured that all three points went to Tottenham. The League fixture at the Lane this season was played in December 2011 and resulted in a 3-0 win for Spurs with goals from Gareth Bale, Aaron Lennon and Jermain Defoe. Bolton's Gary Cahill was sent-off. The reverse fixture at Bolton has yet to be played. During the Premier League Era, Spurs have 10 wins to Bolton's 9 with the other 6 matches drawn. Overall, Spurs have the edge over Bolton with 46 wins to 37 with 20 matches out of the 103 played so far drawn. please log in to view this image Full history of Tottenham Hotspur v Bolton Wanderers matches 1898-2012 please log in to view this image They played for Spurs & Bolton... Chris Armstrong Fred Barrett Gudni Bergsson Sean Davis Frank Drabble Chris Fairclough Les Ferdinand Quinton Fortune George Goldsmith Eidur Gudjohnsen Bill Hinton George Hunt Ernie Jones Gordon Jones Bill Joyce Don McAllister Neil McNab Ian Moores Grzegorz Rasiak Bert Sproston (Spurs player, Bolton coach & scout) Bob Tannahill Wilf Waller Ian Walker please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
I like that image of the FA Cup, sketched is it? Nothing beats a Spurs FA Cup run. ****in' love it. I can see the headlines already... please log in to view this image
Some odd expressions in the main photo....has Jason Voorhees suddenly appeared behind that corner of the goal?
Is it Pavlyuchenko's ridiculous goal against them at the Reebok? Probably his best and I'm not surprised that their players didn't seem to know where the ball was, to be honest. That was another game where Redknapp picked two holding midfielders and our shape sucked, by the way.
The interesting statstic of P11 Tot W5 D4 L2 hopefully will be stronger come the weekend. Bolton aren't the greatest attacking team but we all know what it's like for teams that have had a poor run in the league given the opportunity to get to the FA Cup semis. Will be a tough game and rightly so. Once upon a time I had real respect for what Sam Allardyce did at Bolton and for a while they were a tidy outfit and were extremely hard to beat. At home we should be favourites but our league form recently will give them confidence coming into the match, Tough one to call, facts are we have only conceded one goal in the competition and on paper have a stronger team. I can see what Coyle is trying to achieve at Bolton and you what can say about them is that they do fight for every ball and make life very difficult for the opposition. My heart says 3-1 my head says 1-1.
A tidy, professional 2-0 will suffice - keep the ball, use it well, negate their threat, and pick them off. The defensive side of things needs the morale boost after the last few games.
1st team for this one? Anyone know if Lennon is likely to be fit? I would imagine Bolton will rest a few for more important battles ahead.
Has anyone else spotted that this tie has now caused the scheduled PL game v Bolton on FAC semi-final weekend, to now have to be shoehorned into the last 10days of the season. I'm sincerely hoping no-one asks me why?
Bolton have been seen as the 'perfect pick-me-up' for teams in a bad run. I believe Arsenal and Chelsea both had good runs started by beating Bolton. Let's hope this stays true for us!
Cudicini; Walker, Gallas, Nelsen, Assou-Ekotto; Van Der Vaart, Parker, Modric, Bale; Saha, Defoe SUBS: Friedel, Kaboul, Kranjcar, Rose, Livermore, Sandro, Giovani Positives: * Modric in the middle * Options if we want/need to change things around * VDV getting a run-out Negatives: * Gallas and Nelsen isn't confidence-boosting * VDV isn't good at covering when deployed on the right wing * The feeling that Livermore will be on the pitch before GDS, even if it's clear we need pace down the right
Wonky as ****, again. For those that haven't seen the line-up, it's: Cudicini; Walker, Nelsen, Gallas, Assou-Ekotto; van der Vaart, Parker, Modric, Bale; Defoe, Saha. Friedel, Kaboul, Kranjcar, Rose, Livermore, Sandro and Dos Santos make the bench. Webb's the ref, just to top it off.
I'm extremely nervous about this game, don't wanna be negative but if we lose then our season could be in danger of collapsing in the next few weeks coz if we drop out of the top 4 now I think we'll struggle to get it back after being there for so long.
