We take on Wolves in the Premier League at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Saturday evening (8pm UK) - turn the clock back 117 years, and Wolves provided the opposition for a major milestone in our history...
Our first Football League game | 1908
Wolverhampton Wanderers were our first opponents after joining the Football League back in 1908. A crowd of 20,000 were at the Lane for a Thursday afternoon fixture in the old Second Division (now the Championship) on 1 September, 1908. We kicked-off a league journey now into a 117th season with a 3-0 win. It was a result to make everyone sit up and take notice - Wolves were the FA Cup holders and founder members of the Football League 20 years earlier. Legendary former striker Vivian Woodward - the Harry Kane of his day - registered our first Football League goal after six minutes and added a second soon after the interval. Tom Morris rounded off the scoring. A copy of the one penny match programme issued that day - Volume 1, Number 1 - would fetch a pretty penny today!
Highbury high
We enjoyed a few highs (and suffered a few lows!) at Arsenal's old Highbury home over the years - but few matched the feeling fans would have felt in the red half of north London on 15 April, 1981 - and we didn't even play Arsenal! It was our FA Cup semi-final replay against Wolves, on the way to that memorable 'Ossie's Dream' final replay win against City. The North Bank was packed with lilywhite and blue as a double strike from Garth Crooks - track down the second on YouTube, if you can - put us in the driving seat before a thunderbolt from Ricky Villa saw us home. Ricky, of course, would then write his name into Spurs folklore at Wembley...