Having been pre-occupied with Walsall for most of the season so far it made a change to go to Molineux to see Wolves, who had been struggling for once this season, entertain double winners Spurs. So far Villa and West Brom. were the top two Midland teams in the First Division with Wolves and Birmingham City both in the bottom half of the table. Wolves, having lost 7-2 in their last league match at Blackpool and then knocked out of the cup by local rivals West Bromwich, were looking for a revival.
SATURDAY 3RD FEBRUARY, 1962
LEAGUE DIVISION ONE AT MOLINEUX, WOLVERHAMPTON
WOLVERHAMPTON WANDERERS 3 (Wharton, McParland, Crowe)
TOTTENHAM HOTSPURS 1 (White) Attendance 45,687
Davies; Stuart, Thompson; Kirkham, Slater (capt), Flowers;
Wharton, Crowe, Murray, Broadbent, McParland;
Brown; Baker, Henry; Blanchflower (capt), Norman, Mackay;
Medwin, White, Allen, Greaves, Jones;
Referee:- H.P. Hackney, Barnsley
Wolves, only two points off the two relegation places, introduced two new signings Peter McParland, the Irish international winger, from Aston Villa and inside forward Chris Crowe from Blackburn. Spurs on the other hand were beginning to reproduce their form of last season, when they won the double, with the recent introduction of Jimmy Greaves from Chelsea. They were now second in the league just two points behind leaders Burnley.
Today however, the form book went out of the window and Wolves for once played with their old determination. It was not just the two newcomers who brought added zest as the rest of the forward line, all played as if inspired. Wolves were well on top and deserved their early lead which came after fifteen minutes. McParland made a characteristic run down the left before being knocked off the ball, but he recovered his footing and sent over an excellent cross which Wharton, not the tallest of men, headed past Brown into the net. Wolves continued to attack and Spurs had Brown to thank for two excellent saves.
Spurs did fight back very quickly when the Scotsman John White took a pass from Allen and hit a wonderful 20 yard goal over goalkeeper Davies to make it 1-1. Soon after this Les Allen was injured in a fierce tackle from Crowe and had to move onto the right wing with Medwin taking over at centre forward. Crowe was already becoming a firm favourite with the crowd and was always in the action but the other new boy McParland scored the next goal with a flying header from Wharton's right wing cross. Half time 2-1.
Spurs still had the limping Allen on the right wing at the start of the second half (remember no substitutes were allowed at this time). The visitors continued to attack and after a series of hard tackles from full back Stuart, they appealed strongly for a penalty when Jones was sent flying inside the area. Greaves led the protests, which were of no avail, and got booked for his pains.
Just when Spurs seemed to be getting back into the game Wolves scored a third and probably decisive goal. Murray broke clear when Mackay misheaded the ball, but as Norman was about to tackle him turned the ball inside to Crowe, already a new hero, who calmly stroked the ball past Brown. 3-1 and surely were assured of the points now. Wolves attacked for much of the rest of the game but failed to add to their score.
Spurs did not lie down and Mackay in particular had two long range efforts, one saved by the young goalkeeper Davies and another which went narrowly wide. Spurs were no doubt handicapped by the injury to Allen, but were already behind when that happened. Wing half Kirkham should also be congratulated for keeping Jimmy Greaves out of the action for most of the game. As it was the whole crowd rose as one to salute the Wolves at the end of the game - a rare sight indeed this season.
SATURDAY 10TH FEBRUARY, 1962
LEAGUE DIVISION TWO AT FELLOWS PARK, WALSALL Attendance 10,864
WALSALL 2 (Taylor 2) HUDDERSFIELD TOWN 2 (McHale, Balderstone)
Boswell; Palin, Guttridge; Hill, McPherson (capt), Dudley;
Meek, Hodgkisson, Foster, Richards, Taylor;
Wood; Atkins, Wilson; Saward, Coddington, Dinsdale;
McHale, White, Stokes, Balderstone, O'Grady;
Referee:- A.W. Sparling, Grimsby
Walsall were still trying to find a replacement centre forward for injured Tommy Wilson and this time tried local lad Trevor Foster, normally a winger or inside forward. Meek replaced Askey on the right wing for the Saddlers. Huddersfield included Len White signed from Newcastle on Monday at inside right. Huddersfield had a few other big names in goalkeeper Ray Wood, formerly with Manchester United, Ray Wilson at left back, Irishman Pat Saward at right half and Yorkshire cricketer Chris Balderstone at inside left.
Walsall had an early fright when McHale easily beat Guttridge on the right wing and flashed the ball across the goalmouth where Stokes missed the ball completely with the goal at his mercy. Walsall then took the lead after only seven minutes when a defensive mix up left Colin Taylor with only the goalkeeper to beat. His first shot came back to him off Wood, but he smashed the second attempt into the far corner of the net.
For the rest of the first half Walsall dominated possession and had several good chances which all went astray until the 36th minute when Taylor scored again after a defensive blunder by Coddington as Hodgkisson found Rchards, who flicked it into the area. George Meek let the ball run to Taylor who this time hit a hard right foot shot past Wood. Five minutes later Huddersfield pulled one back when the Walsall defence failed to clear a left wing cross and McHale scored with a perfect right foot shot. Half time 2-1.
Huddersfield caught Walsall cold in the first minute of the second half when Stokes rounded McPherson and put across a perfect ball from the bye line and a defender's attempted clearance struck Balderstone and bounced in off his chest before Boswell could get to it. 2-2 and all to play for. However the game seemed to deteriorate from this point onwards with Walsall's forwards unable to click into gear. I got even worse when a terrific thunderstorm drenched the ground and the crowd.
During this downpour Len White nearly scored the winner for the visitors but Palin somehow managed to clear off the line. Boswell did well in the Walsall goal during this period but the home side, despite frantic attempts to get the winner, were thwarted by the other goalkeeper Ray Wood who kept his nerve and defied everything Walsall threw at him in the final stages.
MONDAY 19TH FEBRUARY, 1962
LEAGUE DIVISION ONE AT VILLA PARK, BIRMINGHAM
ASTON VILLA 0 TOTTENHAM HOTSPURS 0 Attendance 50,063
Sims; Lee, Aitken; Crowe, Sleeuwenhoek, Deakin;
MacEwan, McMorran, Thomson, Hale, Burrows;
Brown; Baker, Henry; Blanchflower (capt), Marchi, Mackay;
Medwin, White, Smith, Greaves, Dyson;
These two teams have been drawn together in the sixth round of the F.A. Cup next month so tonight was something of a rehearsal for the game at White Hart Lane. The visitors were without three regulars centre half Norman, Les Allen and Cliff Jones but still fielded a very strong side. The Villa took the game to them right from the word go and only poor finishing stopped them from being well in the lead. Perhaps they missed chief goalscorer Derek Dougan but their attacking game soon got the vast crowd behind them. They bombarded the Spurs goal but a combination of their very agile goalkeeper Bill Brown and the barrier of defenders in front of him kept them out.
Spurs perhaps had the best chance of the game when Medwin crossed, only for it to be missed by Bobby Smith in the middle. It ran to left winger Terry Dyson but he could only hit the post. Mackay played his usual tough game for Spurs and was repeatedly penalised for fouls, becoming a target for the Villa crowd. A great long distance shot from Bobby Smith had Nigel Sims scrambling across the goal to save, but Spurs were nearly always on the back foot throughout the game. The vital goal would not come yet Villa will fancy their chances in the forthcoming cup tie after a really fighting performance.
In another game played that night Manchester United beat Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough in a fifth round replay 2-0 in front of a crowd of 65,009.
(Villa in fact lost the cup tie 2-0 at White Hart Lane in March and Spurs went on to win the cup for the second season in succession by beating Burnley in the final).
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