Steve Heighway scored the goal that took Liverpool into the 1971 FA Cup semi-final. At the other end, Ray Clemence made sure it was enough.
Liverpool’s 1–0 win at White Hart Lane on 16 March settled a quarter-final which had begun with a goalless draw at Anfield ten days earlier. Bill Shankly’s side had been given a second chance to reach the last four, but would have to take it away from home.
Heighway put them ahead in the twenty-fifth minute, with John Toshack providing the assist. The scorer was still in his first Liverpool season. A year earlier he had been playing non-league football for Skelmersdale United while pursuing his academic studies; now his goal had put Liverpool within reach of a Wembley final.
Tottenham had Pat Jennings in goal and an attack featuring Martin Chivers and Martin Peters. They could not find the equaliser. Liverpool kept the advantage through the second half, during which Ian Callaghan replaced Peter Thompson.
A Tottenham supporter’s recollection gives the result another perspective. Writing years later, Brian Judson singled out this replay as an extraordinary match in the fixture’s history. “Ray Clemence was simply brilliant that night,” he recalled for Spurs Odyssey, remembering a goalkeeper who resisted everything the home side could produce.
That is a retrospective assessment, but it explains why a game decided by one first-half goal remained memorable to a supporter of the losing team.
Liverpool had now completed five FA Cup matches without conceding. Wins against Aldershot, Swansea City and Southampton had brought them to the quarter-final; two clean sheets against Spurs carried them beyond it.
The next opponents were Everton, at Old Trafford. Heighway’s goal had secured the derby semi-final. Clemence and the defence had preserved another narrow lead on a cup run which was beginning to give Shankly’s rebuilt side a substantial story of its own.