Tait Sandy Image 3 Tottenham Hotspur 1905

Description

Glenbuck, Ayrshire born left back Sandy Tait began his football career with Glenbuck Athletic in 1888 joining Ayr in 1889 and playing on loan for Royal Albert the same year. He played for Rangers in 1891-92 and Motherwell from 1892 to 1894 before moving to Preston North End. He made his Football League debut against Nottingham Forest in March 1895, and he played for 5 years at Deepdale making 79 appearances before moving to Tottenham Hotspur in the 1899 close season. He was known as “Terrible Tait” because of his ferocious tackling but was never booked. Tait won the 1899-1900 Southern League Championship with Spurs and was famously a member of the 1901 FA Cup winning team (for which he received a win bonus of £24) when Tottenham became the first and only non league team to win the Cup beating Sheffield United in a replay. Although not captain of the victorious team he subsequently became club captain.

On 23rd March 1903 he played for the Anglo Scots in the annual match against the Home Scots and was a Scottish trialist that month, but was never selected for his country. He played 243 games for Spurs until 1908 in Southern League and FA Cup, scoring 3 times but left them just as they joined The Football League and never played for them in that competition. He was given a benefit match by Tottenham on 21st October 1905 – they beat New Brompton 6-0. He finished his career with a season at Leyton in 1908-09 where he played 6 times and was player-manager and then played 3 games with Croydon Common in 1910-11. He later coached The Corinthians in the 1920’s.