Tamworth delight in Tottenham visit for classic FA Cup tie

Tamworth v Tottenham Hotspur

By Kaz Mochlinski at the Lamb Ground

FA Cup

Third Round

Talking Points

In preparation for the biggest match of their lives, the Tamworth FC players had just one, solitary training session. It underlines the immense gulf between Tottenham Hotspur and their FA Cup third round opponents.

“Tottenham’s players are probably having recovery massages while I’m delivering food” reflected midfielder Tom Tonks, a catering van driver, who, like all the Tamworth squad, plays football in his spare time.

Tonks’s teammates work as teachers, a labourer, bricklayers, a building surveyor, accountants, a fitness instructor / personal trainer, retail workers, and a zip salesman. All are due to be back at work on Monday morning.

It is an accepted aspect of being one of only three part-time clubs in the National League, the top tier of non-league football, and it meant that they were classic FA Cup minnows in their meeting with Spurs.

Barely a couple of seasons ago, Tamworth were playing down in England’s seventh level. Two terrific promotions have followed in succession, both as champions, from the Southern League Premier Division Central and then the National League North.

This week the National League had actually agreed to re-arrange Tamworth’s Tuesday match with Wealdstone in order to help the Lambs have more time to get ready to face Tottenham, but fate intervened and changed their schedule.

Rather than having a clear eight days ahead of Spurs’ visit to the Lamb Ground, last weekend’s FA Trophy game away at Sutton United was postponed because of frost and had to be played on Tuesday instead.

For the Tamworth part-timers, a midweek match like that necessitates taking a half-day off work, as well as missing one of their usual twice-a-week training sessions, which are normally held on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

At least they had an extra 24 hours more than Tottenham to recover, but, while Spurs were boosted by Wednesday’s win over Liverpool in their League Cup semi-final, Tamworth were beaten at Sutton by the same 1-0 scoreline.

Some consolation came from connecting with an iconic piece of FA Cup folklore, as they played at Sutton United’s Gander Green Lane ground exactly 36 years to the day after one of the historic competition’s greatest ever upsets happened there.

Sutton are forever remembered for their third round exploits back in 1989, when they knocked out Coventry City, just two years after the then top-flight club had famously lifted the FA Cup at Wembley.

It was also encouraging for Tamworth to be reminded of Coventry’s own achievement, since the two towns are not too far apart geographically in the West Midlands and on that epic day in 1987 the Sky Blues showed that it is possible to overcome Spurs as an underdog in a big cup tie.

That defeat by Coventry City remains the only occasion that Tottenham have lost in the nine times when they have reached the FA Cup Final. This year the pressure has become intense for a repeat victory to end the club’s recent run without silverware.

The Spurs head coach, Ange Postecoglou, has added to the expectation by publicly pointing out that he always wins a trophy in his second season at a club. And his side are still among the favourites for the Europa League.

While Tottenham are tackling European football, Tamworth are focused on staying in the National League, with elimination from the FA Trophy at Sutton seen as removing a distraction for a team still adjusting to being back at a higher level of non-league football.

They were looking out for Spurs scouts watching the Lambs at Gander Green Lane, among an attendance of 951, but any Tottenham representatives were not immediately obvious. And Tamworth do not particularly have anything to hide.

The team are impressive, without demonstrating too much for one of the country’s leading clubs to worry about unduly. Set up similarly to Spurs in a 4-2-3-1 formation, they were likeably energetic and committed in their approach.

Despite all of the effort in keeping fit, underlined by Tonks explaining “I’m in the gym six days a week at 5.15am”, they started feeling fatigued in the final stages of their performance against Sutton, entirely understandably for part-time players.

Tamworth’s charismatic manager, Andy Peaks, put out a very strong line-up just five days before hosting Tottenham, with perhaps eight of his best XI beginning the game, and his other main players being brought on later.

The return for a first match after injury of the outside-right, Kyle Finn, was a bonus (and he hit the crossbar with the Lambs’ best chance at Sutton). But a bit of an availability crisis at left-back lately has been a persistent problem.

Interestingly, they are serious about set-pieces and clearly work on them regularly - in stark contrast to Postecoglou’s repeated denials of the importance of dead-ball situations, and refusal to give too much attention to them in training.

Peaks has been going to Spurs games himself, but acknowledges that this time he already knew more about his rivals than they would have done about Tamworth and the Lamb Ground.

“We’re all football fans, we love the sport, and we watch as many matches as possible. So I felt that I had a reasonable idea of what their coach does with his team from all the times I have seen them on television.

“But Tottenham have been especially good with us. I have been to see them at their stadium and they took care of us wonderfully well. It was a memorable experience just to observe top level football in such a setting.

And Peaks added: “I went to watch them at home to Liverpool last month and when you go to a stadium like that, it opens your eyes to what you’re going to be facing.

“I took my youngest son, Jacob, who is 21 and has come with me to watch a few opposition teams. It was a fantastic occasion and a bit of a reward for him because I’ve taken him to some cold, wet, horrible places over the years.

“So it was a bit of a payback: a nice, corporate day at Tottenham. They gave me great tickets - they put us in the directors’ box, only a few rows behind Daniel Levy, so fair play, because they didn’t have to do that.”

Then he summarised the Goliath v David type of tie at the Lamb Ground perfectly: “They are an unbelievable club and this game is what the FA Cup is about.”