On 15th March 1966, Spurs entertained Aston Villa at White Hart Lane in Division 1.
Neither club was setting the league alight – Spurs were 5th in the table, but were someway off of the leaders and hadn’t seen a win for a month, in which time they’d been knocked out of the cup too. Villa were lower half of the table, but someway clear of relegation – which probably meant we were set for a dull encounter as not a lot for either team to play for – WRONG!
Inside first 15 mins, Laurie Brown, Alan Gilzean and Jimmy Greaves had scored to race Spurs into a 3-0 lead. It looked at though Spurs were keen to halt the slide of recent results. Tony Hateley pulled one back for Villa, but a Jimmy Robertson goal made it 4-1 before the interval.
Just 5 mins into second half, a Frank Saul effort extended the Lilywhites lead to 5-1. The majority of the 28,371 should be heading home happy, shouldn’t they?
Three goals from Tony Hateley inside just 4 minutes had Spurs reeling and Villa very much back in the match at 5-4. In the 79th minute, Villa equalised! In the final minutes, Alan Deakin, who had grabbed the Villa equaliser, had a golden chance to cap an amazing comeback and actually win the match. Having rounded Big Pat and the goal gapping, he hesitated for a moment too long, allowing Alan Mullery to get back and clear his shot off of the line!