18: Pat Jennings, Northern Ireland, Match 2000 Millennium Collection

A new domestic season is upon us following the traditional curtain raiser of a Friday evening kick off in the Championship. With four weeks having passed since the end of the World Cup it’s probably a good thing that things are back up and running as Harry Kane and Declan Rice definitely looked a bit bored towards the end of proceedings and have no doubt really enjoyed their respective pre-season trips to China and Italy. The latter may get to get a few more miles on the clock in the more traditional season opener, the Community Shield, where Premier League champions Arsenal will take on FA Cup winners Manchester City. The game will take place at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff to really hammer home the early-2000s nostalgia of the Gunners winning the league and will provide a first opportunity for Enzo Maresca to prove he didn’t just get the City job because he looks a bit like Pep Guardiola. 

The first major trophy (as of 2025) up for grabs in the English season has been around in some form or other since 1898 where it was founded as the Sheriff of London Charity Shield and served as football’s equivalent of cricket’s Gentlemen v Players match. It took three attempts for a club to win it outright, Corinthians defeating Aston Villa in 1900, before being phased out for the FA’s Charity Shield from 1908 onwards. It wasn’t until 1930 that the format of league and cup champions facing off was formalised and even then there have been some interesting editions over the years including double winners Tottenham Hotspur playing a Football Association XI in 1961. How times change. There were also a number of occasions where the trophy was shared, perhaps due to an English aversion to penalty shootouts, with Spurs and Arsenal setting aside their differences in 1991 to presumably ferry the shield constantly between Finsbury Park and Seven Sisters in the cab of a Victoria Line train. Back in 1967 the trophy preceded Andy Burnham by nearly sixty years by splitting its time between Manchester and London thanks to the exploits of Spurs’ goalkeeper Pat Jennings.

FA Cup winners Spurs faced First Division champions Manchester United at Old Trafford to kick off the 1967/68 season with an array of legendary talent on the pitch. United’s ‘Holy Trinity’ of Bobby Charlton, George Best and Denis Law faced up to Alan Mullery, Jimmy Greaves and Terry Venables and it was Spurs who took the lead through a scrappy goal from Jimmy Robertson. A few minutes later Pat Jennings launched an old fashioned punt into the mixer but, rather than being held up by target man Alan Gilzean, it took a wicked bounce over opposite number Alex Stepney and gave Spurs a 2-0 lead. United woke up and Charlton had scored twice to level the scores before twenty minutes passed proving that being Spursy is by no means a modern phenomenon. In the second half Frank Saul put them back in front before Denis Law equalised. The trophy was shared sparing everyone the drudgery of extra time but, due to the game predating them by three years, denying the public a penalty shootout that could have allowed Stepney to settle the score with Jennings. Seven years later he would briefly lead United’s scoring charts thanks to two penalty goals in a grim season which culminated in their relegation to the Second Division.

Jennings’ thirteen year stay at White Hart Lane saw him add to his FA Cup and Charity Shield medals with two League Cups and victory in the inaugural UEFA Cup but Spurs suffered relegation at the end of the 1976/77 season and sold the keeper to Arsenal under the impression his career was coming to an end. In reality Jennings had another eight years in him and helped his new North London employees to four cup finals in the space of three years in the late 1970s. He made over 300 appearances in total for the Gooners and became the first player in the English league to make 1000 career appearances in 1983. He retired from first team club football in 1985 but returned to Spurs and played regularly for the reserves to keep himself match fit ahead of the 1986 World Cup. Jennings had been instrumental to Northern Ireland’s qualification, and impressive performances, at the 1982 edition of the tournament in Spain and made World Cup history by becoming its oldest player in a 3-0 defeat to Brazil. His record would later be taken from him by Roger Milla at USA ‘94 but 119 international caps, appearing at two World Cups and winning the last ever British Home Championships is not to be sniffed at.

Tomorrow’s Community Shield match will probably fly under the radar for many football fans who will be torn between scrolling through Twitter hoping a weird little Italian bloke makes a bad AI picture of their club’s latest transfer target or screaming into the abyss at Gianni Infantino’s most recent defecation on the beautiful game. The fact it’s been moved to Cardiff in order to accommodate a bang average pop singer’s songs about getting on the bugle speaks volumes about the fixture’s perceived importance nowadays and neutrals may struggle to care about another game between Arsenal and City. Perhaps the shot in the arm the game needs is David Raya punting one over Gianluigi Donnarumma to remind us all that football can still be a good laugh and restore a bit of hope ahead of another season. Maybe rather than getting some pickpockets in to keep his charges alert or getting out some big dominoes to prove a point Mikel Arteta could fire up some grainy footage of Pat Jennings hoofing one into the atmosphere.