Gillingham to Tottenham via Edinburgh
Tottenham Hotspur play Gillingham in a few hours as part of the newly named EFL (English Football League) Cup. Spurs sit third in the table of the English Premier league after their hard fought, 1-0 win, over a Sunderland at the weekend. Gillingham sit fifty-four places below them in thirteenth position of League One after a 2-1 defeat to Port Vale (This reminds me to tell the story of my first ever Tottenham game against Port Vale).
This game is made more interesting by the return to White Hart Lane (Tottenham's stadium) of former player and now Gillingham manager, Justin Edinburgh. Justin played a total of 190 times for Tottenham between 1990 and 2000. In fact his most famous moment was getting sent off during the final of this same competition in 1999. With the scores at 0-0 his dismissal left Tottenham down to 10 men and in dire straits until Allan Neilson turned up at the right time to head home a deflected Steffen Iversen cross in the last minute of the game.
For today's game Tottenham will rotate the squad. Harry Kane is injured leaving a great opportunity for new signing, Vincent Janssen, to get on the score sheet. There could also be debut starts for youth product, Harry Winks, and the new young goal keeper, Pau Lopez.
For Tottenham, this is a game known as a banana skin. They are expected to win and win comfortably. With Tottenham though, nothing is ever that comfortable.