1971 - Japan v Spurs

Japan v Spurs - 1971

In 1971 Spurs embarked on a post-season tour of Japan, playing three matches against the Japan National Team. The first match was played in Kobe on May 27, where goals from Joe Kinnear, Peter Collins, Alan Gilzean, John Pratt and two goals from Martin Chivers saw Spurs run out 6-0 winners. Spurs won the second game 7-2 in Tokyo on June 3, with two goals each from Martin Chivers, Alan Gilzean and John Pratt and a single goal from Alan Mullery. In the final game in Tokyo on June 9 two goals from Alan Mullery, including a penalty, and a goal from Martin Chivers confirmed a 3-0 victory.

Two official programmes were produced for the Spurs games in Japan in 1971.

The first programme was only sold at the first game in Kobe and is particularly rare, as is the ticket for the game shown below. The programme has 14 x B5 pages in landscape format (with only two pages of adverts) and is all in Japanese. The programme has two pages of introductions from the Japan FA etc. and then lists details of the three games to be played on the tour. There is an article on Spurs and on the centre pages there is a Spurs team photo and the squad list. Details are given of the Japan squad together with small photos of the players and finally there is a blank memo page.

The second programme, which covered all three games has 20 x B5 pages (including 4 pages of adverts) and is again all in Japanese. After the introductions, the programme includes articles on Spurs and full details of the Spurs squad including small pen-picture photos of each of the players and officials and a full page photo of Martin Peters. Details are given of the Japan squad including small player photos and finally there is a page to enter scores/line-ups etc.

Programme - Tokyo