VIDEO: Happy 56th Birthday Glenn Hoddle

On this day in 1979 one of Spurs greats, Glenn Hoddle, was 22 and celebrated with a typically memorable goal which beat the then European Champions and reigning First Division Champions Nottingham Forest at White Hart Lane.

Back in those days you had to win the league to be able to enter the European Cup, not fourth as you do today, or even sixth sometimes! Forest were the top team in the country.

Nottingham Forest had won the league in 1977-78 after being promoted the year before. They finished runners-up in 1978-79, won the League Cup in 1978 and 1979, the Charity Shield in 1978, the European Cup in 1978 and 1980 and the European Super Cup in 1979.

They were the team at the time, managed by the man who should have become England manager, Brian Clough, not forgetting Peter Taylor of course. Clough once told the media it took 'moral courage' to play the way Hoddle did in the days when every side had a hard man and the tackles flew. Teams would try to kick him off the ball, Hoddle just stuck to skill.

Totttenham overcame Forest 1-0 in 1979 thanks to Hoddle's spectacular strike which was hailed on The Big Match as Goal of the Season. The Big Match was a highlights show on Sunday at 3pm if memory serves, time to get back from the pub. Match of the Day was as ever on a Saturday night. Brian Moore ran the ITV show and commentated on the game.

This Hoddle gem was a special goal as the ball never touched the floor. He struck an exquisite volley past a hapless Peter Shilton after two headers from Gerry Armstrong and Chris Jones, from a punt upfield after only 3 minutes by keeper Milija Aleksic.

I remember so many blinders from Hoddle who was simply the most gifted British footballer of his generation. The England team should have been built around him but of course wasn't. Had he been born in another country they most certainly would have done so, such was his talent.

There is one tussle in this game that sums up the different between then and now between Kenny Burns and Osvaldo Ardiles. Men playing football, not the non contact sport we have today.

The team that day in front of 49,038 fans at White Hart Lane was:

Milija Aleksic, Chris Hughton, Don McAllister, Steve Perryman, Gordon Smith, Ricki Villa, Ossie Ardiles, Glenn Hoddle, Terry Yorath, Chris Jones, Gerry Armstrong.

Colin Lee came on as a sub for Gerry Armstrong.

Enjoy the video of the match and remember the good old days Hoddle, Perryman, Ardiles and Villa, our two World Cup winners, one to small for the Premier League! Now where have we heard that before.



Happy Birthday Glenn.



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