Remembering Martin Chivers, his one-touch finish and his hair

I used to hate Martin Chivers; he always seemed to score against whatever team I was supporting.

I first remember him in 1968 as a Southampton striker alongside Ron Davies, who was a Saints legend. When they sold him for a record £125,000 to Spurs, they replaced him with the windmilled arms of Mick Channon.

At Spurs he scored 150 times in 358 league games and for a time was one of the most feared in the league and remained the leading Tottenham goalscorer in European competitions for 39 years until he was overtaken by Jermain Defoe.

Then he went to play in Switzerland in the long hot summer in July 1976, moving to Servette before returning to English league football with spells at Norwich City in 1978/79 and Brighton & Hove Albion in 1979/80.

Internationally he suffered due to England being rubbish in the 70s and in October 1973, he won the last of his full England caps in the draw against Poland in that infamous World Cup qualifier. He got 24 caps and never really reproduced the best of his club form internationally.

But the thing that was most terrifying about 6’1″ Big Chiv were the years when he sported one of the most impressive/awful ‘bubble’ perms, which did make him look a bit like your aunty Janet.

To be a centre-forward in the first division in the 70s you had to be robust and to be able to handle yourself. He was taller than most but wasn’t the most aggressive striker compared to his competitors like the bear that was Bob Latchford, Stuart Pearson or the bow-legged Supermac. My recollection of him is of being one of those strikers who took one touch and scored. Spurs were Spursy even back then and had he had better more consistent service he’d have scored a lot more.

But it’s that classic haircut that I’ll always remember laughing over. A career dominated by a perm. We should all wish for such infamy.