Long Hotspur Summer

As we play our first ever home league game in the month of July this evening, billy shaw looks back at the handful of times we’ve played competitive football during June and July…

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By the time this unprecedented 2019/20 campaign finishes, we’ll have been playing Premier League football for almost a full calendar year.

Little could anyone have known when we kicked-off at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with a 3-1 win over Aston Villa on 10 August, 2019, that our season would still be rumbling on into July, with even a handful of games yet to be played.

Thursday’s trip to Sheffield United brought our first-ever league fixture in the month of July, with tonight’s clash with Everton following along similar lines as our first home domestic outing of the same period.

Competitive matches in June and especially July are historically rare, but not totally unheard of…

SPURS 2-1 FULHAM 7 JUNE, 1941 (REGIONAL LEAGUE SOUTH)

It’s been widely remarked that this year’s coronavirus pandemic has caused the largest sporting disruption in peacetime and indeed you have to go back to the war years to find the first instance of a senior competitive match for us in June.

The outbreak of World War II in September, 1939, caused the abandonment of the regular Football League season after only three games and regional league competitions were set up for the remainder of the 1939/40 campaign as life changed completely for players and supporters alike.