Since the first ever English domestic double in 1961, Tottenham fans have been starved of that level of success. They have yet to top English football's top flight since then and their trophy cabinet has seen very few additions. In fact, the nickname spurs has often been used as a verb to describe bottling something and being 'spursy' has become far too familiar to Tottenham fans in recent years.
It's been nearly 14 years since the North London side last lifted any major silverware and even then they were massive underdogs. The main reason for that was the fact that Spurs had parted company with their manager Martin Jol just over two months into the season and due to some very poor defensive performances, found themselves in the relegation zone.
The only competition that they had found any joy in was the League Cup, where Jol had helped them safely navigate through their third round tie with Middlesbrough thanks to goals from
Gareth Bale and
Tom Huddlestone.
Their fourth round tie would be new manager Juande Ramos' first game in charge, and they would secure another 2-0 home win, this time over Blackpool, with the goals coming from
Robbie Keane and
Pascal Chimbonda.
That win would set up a quarter final tie away at the Etihad Stadium against Manchester City and once again Tottenham would win 2-0. This time the goals would come early in both halves firstly from
Jermain Defoe and then
Steed Malbranque to wrap the game up.
Spurs would face their fierce rivals Arsenal in the semi-final and it was a tie that promised much, mostly because the Gunners had been very successful in the past decade compared to Spurs under the management of the legendary Arsene Wenger.
The first leg of the semi-final would be played at the Emirates, and once again Tottenham would take the lead in the first half through Jermaine Jenas but they were unable to hold on and 10 minutes from time,
Theo Walcott levelled the tie for Arsenal to leave it finely poised at 1-1 on aggregate for the second leg.
White Hart Lane was rocking early on as well when Jenas opened the scoring after just three minutes this time. Then
Nicklas Bendtner put through his own net to give Spurs a 2-0 lead at half time and a 3-1 aggregate advantage in the tie. Things only got better from there for Tottenham and by the hour mark they were 4-0 up on the night with goals from
Aaron Lennon and Keane.
Emmanuel Adebayor would pull one back for Arsenal but the rout was completed in injury time when Malbranque added a fifth and sent Spurs to the new Wembley for the first time.
They would face another London rival in the final but this time Chelsea who had been a thorn in the side of Tottenham on many previous occasions. Avram Grant's side contained some of the best players of the 2000's including
Frank Lampard,
John Terry and
Michael Essien.
Another one of the Blues legends would open the scoring in the final as well with
Didier Drogba giving them the lead just six minutes before half time. It took the North London side until 20 minutes before the end to level the scores thanks to a penalty from
Dimitar Berbatov.
The match went into extra time and was settled only four minutes into the extra period when
Jonathan Woodgate latched onto a
Jenas free kick and headed the ball against
Petr Cech who pushed the ball straight back on to Woodgate's head and into the back of the net.
It was Spurs' last major trophy and although they are craving another one I'm sure they won't mind reminiscing about this one for a few minutes.
