THE DUKE OF TOTTENHAM

When we won our first Division One title in 1951, center-forward Len Duquemin scored 14 goals. But it was the last of them – at home to Sheffield Wednesday – that started the celebrations.

- John Fennelly

In what was our penultimate game of the campaign on 28 April that year, and with Manchester United snapping at our heels, we faced a tough Owls team that was battling against relegation. It was a fight they would ultimately lose on goal difference.

A crowd of 46,645 packed into White Hart Lane on that Saturday hoping that we would finish the job ahead of Liverpool’s visit the following week. And they went through agony before the famous ‘Tottenham Roar’ rang out after the Duke’s first-half goal proved enough.

Seventy years ago, and just about seven decades after we’d been playing on Tottenham Marshes, visionary former Spurs player Arthur Rowe had steered us to the ultimate dream.

Chances were few as Wednesday fought all the way but when Duquemin’s opportunity arose he seized it with customary precision. We now had three points more than United with both sides having one game left.

As teammate Eddie Baily recalled: “Reliable Len we used to call him because, when all the other forwards were off the mark, it was usually old Len who saved our faces.”

Eddie himself scored 12 times that season with winger Sonny Walters top-scoring on 15 on our way to a league total of 82.

And what was even more important to Rowe and his troops was our memorable ‘Push and Run’ style of play. Indeed, when Football League president Arthur Drewry presented our skipper Ron Burgess with the trophy he said: “I not only congratulate Spurs on having won it but also on the manner in which they did so.”