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| Ian Moores was signed by Keith Burkinshaw in 1976. Keith usually had the Midas touch when it came to signing players and getting Spurs winning things, but this was his early days in the manager’s post at Tottenham and he was finding his way after being promoted from coach.
Spurs were struggling on the park and were in the relegation zone. Scoring goals was proving difficult for the side and neither Gerry Armstrong, Chris Jones or Peter Taylor were prolific. John Duncan, the best goal poacher of the team was injured for most of the season and nobody else could match his strike rate of four goals from nine games. So, Ian Moores, a gangly blond striker was signed from Stoke City in 1976 to bolster the attack. He was born at Newcastle-under-Lyme and played for the Staffordshire County Boys’ Team before joining Stoke City as a schoolboy at the age of fifteen. Moores started as a left winger for them but became a centre-forward after a switch in Stoke’s A team. Success was to follow with a debut in their first team in April 1974 and two England under-23 appearances in the next two years.
It all went wrong for Ian as he could not continue his good start. He looked awkward and slow in some moves and even in a team prompted by the young Glenn Hoddle, he could not turn chances into goals and he failed to add to his account for the rest of the 1976-77 season, finishing with just those two goals from 18 appearances. His failure became Tottenham’s failure too as we were relegated finishing bottom (22nd) of the top division. For 1977-78,the next season, Spurs were playing exciting football in the Second Division. John Duncan was Spurs’ main marksman with 16 goals from 27 starts and Glenn was really blossoming. Ian found himself mostly a reserve waiting in the wings. His one big success was when he had to come in due to injuries for the home game with Bristol Rovers which was the game that marked the debut of Colin Lee. Spurs ran riot and Lee bagged four goals. Moores got in with a hat trick and the relief on his face was there for all to see. However, Ian’s form was short lived as he managed only one other goal that season in a total of 13 appearances. With the arrival of Ardiles and Villa at the start of season 1978-79, Ian only made two appearances before leaving the club. Ian Moores had been a disappointment at Spurs and seemed, in hindsight, to have been one of the panic buys common in those days. He never seemed to go in hard enough as a striker and he never followed in the footsteps of Martin Chivers who he admired. Sadly, Ian has passed away recently following an illness. Richard Porter |
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Ian, therefore, came to Tottenham with a lot of promise. Over six feet tall, blond and bearded, he looked an imposing sight as a central striker. All started well enough for Ian, with a goal on his debut at Middlesbrough away in the League Cup and a goal on his league debut against Manchester United. Both these games had been victories for Spurs.
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| The 1976-77 season began with Gerry Armstrong wearing the number nine shirt for Tottenham, which had been vacated by Martin Chivers who had left the club in the summer to join Swiss club Servette. After only three games, Armstrong’s shirt and place in the side went to Ian Moores, a 6 foot 2 inch bearded blond striker, who had just joined Spurs from Stoke City for a £75,000 fee. He had made his debut for Stoke in 1974 having graduated to full professional from apprentice at the Victoria Ground and had played twice for the England Under-21 side whilst at the Potteries club. Moores made his first appearance for us in a League Cup tie at Middlesbrough on the last day of August 1976 and he scored as we won 2-1, our first victory of the season following a drawn League game at Boro and defeats at the hands of Ipswich Town and Newcastle United. The next Saturday, Moores made his Tottenham League debut at Old Trafford. Spurs trailed 0-2 at half-time, but second half strikes from Moores, Ralph Coates and John Pratt gave us a 3-2 win in a match that was featured on that night’s “Match of the Day”. An encouraging start for our new 22 year old forward, but one that was not sustained.
The 1976-77 season Tottenham vintage was a poor one. After the near relegation of 1974-75, the following season had seen an improvement and a final By this time, Spurs were staring relegation in the face. Moores played in four of the final five League games (including the 0-5 reverse at Manchester City which was basically the point of no return for Tottenham) and was substitute in the other. For a striker, his record was poor – only two goals in seventeen League appearances, plus two more in the League Cup. 1977-78 saw Spurs in the Second Division and Moores not making a first team showing until the eleventh game of the season. We had made an impressive start to the campaign with only one defeat in the opening ten Second Division matches. Moores returned at Charlton and we lost 1-4 !! However, the following week Ian Moores helped himself to a hat-trick against the generous defence of Bristol Rovers and still managed to get upstaged by debutant Colin Lee, who scored four times in the 9-0 victory. Moores kept his place until the end of November, when he made his final League start of the season at Bolton. John Duncan, Chris Jones and Colin Lee were all ahead of Moores in the pecking order. Three appearances as a substitute late on were all he managed during the second half of the season, as Spurs made an instant return to the First Division courtesy of a 0-0 draw against Southampton at the Dell on the final day. Back in the top flight, Ian Moores found himself back in the first team for the opening fixture – a visit to play Nottingham Forest, where new signings Osvaldo Ardiles and Ricardo Villa made their debuts for Spurs. It was Moores who provided the cross from which Villa scored to earn us a 1-1 draw. Moores made his last appearance for Tottenham four days later when Aston Villa triumphed 4-1 at White Hart Lane. After just over two years at the club, Ian Moores left White Hart Lane to join Orient for a fee of £55,000. After scoring 26 goals in 117 League games for the O’s, Moores returned North in July 1982 to sign for Bolton Wanderers. A year on and he left Burnden Park to play in Cyprus where he had five successful years. Returning to England in the late eighties, Moores helped Southern League Tamworth win the 1989 FA Vase, when he scored in the replay of the Final. Sadly, Ian Moores died in 1998, at the age of 42 following a long battle against cancer. He is one of the players who failed to fulfil his potential in the lilywhite shirt, but he is still remembered by Spurs fans for a variety of reasons. Andrew Ford |
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League position of 9th, but 1976-77 was another poor campaign. Moores retained his place in the side for the next eight games, managing one goal – in the 2-3 League Cup defeat at home to Wrexham – but no further addition to his League total. During that time we lost 2-4 at West Brom and 1-8 at Derby County. After a three match absence, Moores returned to feature in the next four matches, scoring once against Sunderland. The away defeat at Leicester on the Saturday before Christmas was the last time Ian Moores appeared in the first team until the April of 1977.