Ahead of our Carabao Cup third round tie against Doncaster Rovers at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Wednesday evening (7.45pm UK), we take a closer look at our most recent clash against Rovers - a 5-1 away win in the second round of the League Cup back in August, 2009...
Danny's Donny debut
Danny Rose was born and grew up in Doncaster - so maybe it was written in the stars that he would make both his senior and Spurs debuts at his home-town club. The flying full-back joined our Academy from Leeds United in the summer of 2007. Sent out on loan to Watford in March, 2009, Danny made his senior professional debut in a Championship fixture at Doncaster on 4 April, 2009. Back at Spurs for the start of the 2009/10 campaign, Danny was back at the Keepmoat Stadium (now Eco-Power Stadium) a few months later for a League Cup second round tie and came off the bench for Tom Huddlestone on 72 minutes as we ran out 5-1 winners - all in front of his family. Later that season, Danny made a never to be forgotten full debut against Arsenal, smashing home a rocket volley from 35 yards in a 2-1 win on our way to UEFA Champions League qualification. Danny went on to make 214 appearances for us, starting the UCL Final in June, 2019.
Double first for Crouchy
Peter Crouch scored his first senior goal for us on his first start on the same night at Doncaster. Crouchy held off two defenders to power home David Bentley's corner to make it 3-0 after 37 minutes. Signed from Portsmouth in the summer of 2009, the striker started our first four Premier League games on the bench before leading the line against Rovers. He was back on the bench in our next Premier League game against Birmingham City - this time entering the fray to score his first PL goal for us in late 2-1 victory at the Lane. Of course, Crouchy's season would end in glory as he headed home the goal against City at the Etihad that took us into the UEFA Champions League for the 2010/11 season - arguably the most important (although he did score the winner in our famous 1-0 win against Milan in the San Siro) of his 24 in 93 appearances 2009-2011.
Our record against Rovers
We've played Doncaster nine times over the years. Our first encounter was a Second Division clash in December, 1935 with Rovers running out 2-1 winners. We won the return later in the season, 3-1 at the Lane. The last two meetings have been in the League Cup and stand 12-3 in our favour - a 7-2 win in 1975 and the 5-1 success detailed above. John Duncan led the the way with a hat-trick in the fifth round tie 50 years ago with Martin Chivers (2), John Pratt and an own goal completing the seven.
Rovers will become the 55th different opponent to play against our men’s first team in competitive matches at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium since the new stadium opened in April, 2019. On top of Premier League and European opposition, we've only played four lower league teams in domestic cup competitions so far - Brentford (when they were in the Championship), Middlesbrough, Morecambe and Portsmouth.