The first ever Arsenal / Tottenham game

1887/8 was Arsenal’s second year in football.  It was a year in which they were an amateur team, playing friendlies under the name Royal Arsenal.

And it was a season in which, for the very first time Arsenal played Tottenham.

Unfortunately we know very little about this momentous occasion other than the date, the score and the fact the game was stopped after about 75 minutes due to poor light.

Below are the details of the opening games that season leading up to and including that first game on 19 November 1887.

	Date	Opponents		V	F-T	Att
1	01/10/1887	Alexandra United		H	5-1	300
2	08/10/1887	Grove House		H	3-1	600
3	15/10/1887	Clapham Pilgrims		H	2-2
4	22/10/1887	St. Luke’s		H
2	29/10/1887	Barnes		H	0-4	500
5	05/11/1887	Grange Institute		H	4-0
6	12/11/1887	Iona Deptford		H	1-1
7	19/11/1887	Tottenham Hotspur		A	1-2

For some of the games we do actually know the team that played, and you can see the full details for that season, along with teams where known, on Andy Kelly’s statistical site, which is part of the Arsenal History Society project.   There’s an overview of the Society here.

But back to this game in 1887.  Arsenal, as I’ve just said, were in their second season.  Tottenham Hotspur were formed in 1882 and by 1885 had played their first competitive match in the London Association Cup.

At the time of this game Tottenham played on Tottenham Marshes (now part of Lee Valley Park).   According to the information I can find, this was Tottenham’s fifth match of the season (for some reason they were slightly less active on the pitch than Arsenal, despite being formed four years before Arsenal).

However one site I consulted only showed Tottenham playing three games – and I’m not expert enough on Tottenham to be able to decide which listing is correct.  I’ve printed the longer list below.  The short list omits the games against Hendon and St Augustines.

The opening results for Tottenham were

• 1 October 1887: Tottenham 6 Buckhurt Hill 1
• 8 October 1887: Hendon 6 Tottenham 0 (London Cup)
• 29 October 1887: Tottenham 5 St Augustines 1
• 12 November 1887: Tottenham 6 Nondescripts 1
• 19 November 1887: Tottenham 2 Royal Arsenal 1 (match abandoned due to bad light)

Any further information (preferably with some sort of citation of sources) would be welcome.

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