YNWA takes a look back at our past League Cup encounters with Tottenham Hotspur as we prepare to face them in the Carling Cup on Wednesday evening. We have won only two of our six meetings in this competition so far, but one of these came in the most important game of all!

Retaining the trophy
We claimed two trophies at Wembley as we beat Spurs in the Final in March 1982, the old Football League Cup and the new Milk Cup trophy. We went behind early through a Steve Archibald goal, but Ronnie Whelan grabbed a late equaliser past ex-red Ray Clemence, before netting a second in extra-time. Ian Rush added a third, as Spurs suffered their first defeat at Wembley, and their first defeat in nine domestic cup finals. Skipper Graeme Souness lifted the old three-handled trophy, while former captain Phil Thompson held the new Milk Cup aloft.

Great evening for the kids
We drew 1-1 at White Hart Lane in the Fourth Round in December 2004, with Florent Sinama-Pongolle converting a late penalty to equalise at the end of extra time. The reds won the penalty shoot-out 4-3 as the away end rocked to the new ‘La Bamba' song in honour of new boss Rafael Benítez. Stéphane Henchoz was making his 205th and final reds appearance, converting his spot kick, while David Raven and Mark Smyth both made their senior bows.

Beaten in North London
We were held to a draw in the Fifth Round at Anfield in December 1972, with Emlyn Hughes bagging a late equaliser after Martin Peters had netted for Spurs, in front of our largest League Cup crowd to date of 48,677. Unfortunately, we lost the replay 3-1 in North London two days later. Spurs grabbed three goals in the space of nine minutes to go three up inside a quarter of an hour, with Ian Callaghan nabbing our late consolation. This came just nine days after we had won there in the League. However, we headed back north with injuries to key players including Ian Callaghan, Ray Clemence, Kevin Keegan and John Toshack.

We lost our Fourth Round tie 1-0 in October 1984 to be knocked out of the competition for the first time in four years. Clive Allen pounced after Bruce Grobbelaar spilled a shot from Tony Galvin. Ex-red Ray Clemence was again in the Spurs' goal.

Roy's sad farewell
Roy Evans took charge, jointly, of his last ever game as reds boss, as we lost 3-1 at Anfield in the Fourth Round in November 1998. Steffen Iversen and ex-red John Scales put the visitors two up inside twenty minutes, with Allan Nielsen adding a third after an hour. Michael Owen bagged our late consolation.