Manchester Utd 4 Spurs 2

Man­chester Uni­ted 4 Tot­ten­ham Hot­spur 2, Old Traf­ford Sta­dium, Eng­lish Foot­ball Lea­gue Fir­st Di­vi­sion Fix­ture, Dec­ember 16, 1983. Cham­pi­on­ship chasers Man­chester Uni­ted col­lec­ted three im­port­ant points as Ron Atkinson´s men de­feated Tot­ten­ham Hot­spur 4-2 at ho­me thanks to a brace each from ex-Ab­er­deen and Leeds Uni­ted wing­er Ar­thur Gra­ham and Re­pub­lic of Ire­land de­fender Kev­in Moran.

Man­chester Uni­ted had de­feated Liver­pool, West Brom­wich Al­bion, Sun­der­land, Wolver­hampton Wan­derers, Wat­ford, and Ips­wich To­wn, drawn to Nor­wich City, Lei­cester City, and West Ham Uni­ted, and lost ag­ainst As­ton Vil­la and Ever­ton in their ten pre­vi­ous Fir­st Di­vi­sion en­coun­ters, where­as Tot­ten­ham Hot­spur had beaten Not­ting­ham For­est, Birm­ing­ham City, Notts Coun­ty, Luton To­wn, and Queens Park Ran­gers, drawn wi­th Sto­ke City, Liver­pool, and South­ampton, and be­en de­feated by Wolver­hampton Wan­derers and Nor­wich City. Man­chester Uni­ted and Eng­land in­ter­na­tion­al mid­fielder Bry­an Rob­son came clo­se to scor­ing an early goal, on­ly to see his power­ful dip­ping shot hit the bar; but as the fir­st pe­riod pro­gressed Ar­thur Gra­ham broke the de­fens­ive dead­lock any­way when his low cross ended up in the back of the net to give the ho­me out­fit a 1-0 ad­vant­age. Fol­low­ing the break, The Li­ly­whites had their equal­iser cour­tesy of an ac­ro­bat­ic goal by for­mer Ips­wich To­wn for­ward Alan Brazil nine min­utes in­to the sec­ond ha­lf, on­ly for Kev­in Mor­an to re­store the lead for Man­chester Uni­ted as he con­ver­ted a cor­ner-kick from Dutch mid­field mas­ter Ar­nold Muh­ren just a min­ute la­ter, and wi­th sev­en­teen min­utes re­maining the hosts went two goals ahead as a Ray Wil­kins flag-kick fou­nd its way to Gra­ham who head­ed ho­me from clo­se ran­ge to make it 3-1. Then, in the 75th min­ute of the tie, a clev­er thro­ugh head­er from To­ny Galv­in re­place­ment Os­sie Ar­diles fou­nd young stri­ker Ma­rk Falco who push­ed the ball pa­st Uni­ted goal­keeper Ga­ry Bai­ley to give the vis­it­ing te­am from North Lon­don re­newed hope. But, el­ev­en min­utes from the end, Mor­an hit his sec­ond goal of the day as the ver­sat­ile play­er tap­ped the ball in­to the net af­ter Tot­ten­ham cus­todi­an Ray Clem­ence had failed to hold a head­er from Frank Stapleton.

Else­where, Bri­an Clough´s Not­ting­ham For­est com­fort­ably over­came West Ham Uni­ted by a 3-0 mar­gin at City Gro­und thro­ugh a goal each from mid­field­ers Ste­ve Hodge and Co­lin Wal­sh, and stri­ker Garry Birtles, Liver­pool ham­mered Notts Couty 5-0 at An­field where Scot­land in­ter­na­tion­al Graeme Soun­ess sco­red a brace for the reign­ing cham­pi­ons, As­ton Vil­la de­mol­ished Ips­wich To­wn 4-0 at Vil­la Park wi­th Paul Rideout, Ste­ve McMa­hon, Al­lan Evans, and Pe­ter Withe all find­ing the net for the Mid­landers, Ever­ton suc­cumbed to a 2-0 de­feat ag­ainst Queens Park Ran­gers at Loftus Road, West Brom­wich Al­bion lost by the same score ag­ainst Luton To­wn at Kenil­worth Road, and Sun­der­land and Lei­cester City shared the spoils in a 1-1 draw at Roker Park. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Ga­ry Bai­ley, Kev­in Mor­an, Mi­ke Dux­bury, Ar­thur Al­bis­ton, Remi Moses, Ar­nold Muh­ren, Bry­an Rob­son, Ray Wil­kins, Frank Stapleton, Nor­man White­side, Ar­thur Gra­ham. Sub­sti­tute: Lou Ma­cari. Tot­ten­ham Hot­spur Te­am: Ray Clem­ence, Gra­ham Ro­berts, Dan­ny Tho­mas, Ga­ry O’Reilly, Ste­ve Per­ry­man, Ga­ry Stevens, Ally Dick, To­ny Galv­in, Glenn Hoddle, Alan Brazil, Ma­rk Falco. Sub­sti­tute: Os­valdo Ardiles.

Arthur Graham Quickfacts

Ar­thur Gra­ham notched up 34 goals in 220 Scot­tish Foot­ball Lea­gue ap­pear­ances for Ab­er­deen be­fore he joi­ned Leeds Uni­ted for a fee of £125,000 at the be­gin­ning of the 1977–78 season.

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