History: The incredible career of Pat Jennings – An Arsenal and Tottenham legend

Pat Jennings

In 1945 Arsenals 1978 FA Cup winning goalkeeper was born, his name is Pat Jennings.

After turning out for nearby under 18 team Shamrock Rovers (Newry) whilst age 11 at school, Jennings decided to pay his full attention to Gaelic football for the next five years before returning to Newry. After standing out from the rest of the players he set his bags for English Third Division team Watford in 1963. Jennings would play in every match during his first campaign at The Hornets, but by 1964 The Irishman had already caught the eyes of Tottenham whom he signed for in a deal worth £27,000.

Jennings would enjoy a spell of 13 years at White Hart Lane, appearing for Spurs 472 times in the league and altogether amassing a mighty 591 appearances in total. Within three years he won his first piece of silverware lifting the 1967 FA Cup for the first time, before clinching the 1971 and 1973 League Cup and in-between the 1972 UEFA Cup. Impressively he scored from his own box during the 1967 Charity Shield beating the hands of Manchester United’s Alex Stepney. In 1973 he was declared the Footballer Writers Association footballer of the year. Fast track three years and he became the first goalkeeper to win the PFAS copy of the award.

In the summer of 1977 Jennings transferred to the more successful side of North London Arsenal whilst Tottenham believed he was close to hanging up his gloves. This would prove to be untrue with Jennings playing for a further eight years. Within the space of four years he assisted The Gunners to four Cup Finals in three consecutive years. These were the 1978, 1979 and 1980 FA Cup and that year the Cup Winners Cup final. Unfortunately Arsenal only won one of these showdowns when beating Manchester United 3-2 in the 1978 FA Cup.  After pushing his career out for nearly a decade at Arsenal by the end of his years on the red side of North London, Jennings played 327 times for Arsenal with 237 of those appearances being in the league between 1977 and 1985.

In February 1983 Jennings became the first footballer in English football to make 1,000 senior games, making the most of this accolade with a clean sheet versus West Bromwich Albion. In late 1984 Jennings would run out of the tunnel for the last time as goalkeeper for Arsenal against Sheffield United. In May 1985 a celebratory match was held turning out to be a North London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur at Highbury.

After retiring Jennings betrayed The Gunners, returning to arch rivals Tottenham featuring more often than not in their reserve team keeping his reflexes going for Northern Ireland’s 1986 World Cup Campaign. His last match for Spurs was during the Football League Super Cup versus Liverpool in 1986. He was then temporarily signed by Everton for back up for the 1986 FA Cup Final in a Merseyside derby against Liverpool, after Neville Southall had been plagued by injury whilst representing Wales.

In terms of Jennings International career he made his debut for Northern Ireland when having just become an adult at the age of 18 when at Watford. The match commenced in 1964 versus Wales in the British Home Championship which his country won 3-2. In 1982 he featured in what’s been hailed Northern Ireland’s best ever tournament – the 1982 World Cup. During his first three games he conceded only once before then letting in four in the second group stage matches against France who finally won Group D.

Even though Jennings had given in his notice in 1985, Jennings played one last song for Ireland at the 1986 World Cup on his 41^st Birthday becoming the oldest person to compete in the competitions history at the time. The game was Northern Ireland’s last group game resulting in a 0-3 loss to Brazil. From 1966 to 1986 Jennings featured for his country in the qualifying stages of six World Cups. He also secured two British Home Championships with Northern Ireland in 1980 and 1984.

Once officially retiring Jennings became a goalkeeping coach and has helped out at Tottenham ever since.

In 2003 Jennings was included into the English Football Hall of Fame to thank him for his abilities that he showed in football.  In 1987 Jennings was awarded an OBE as part of New Years Honours for his services to football in Northern Ireland, come 2023 he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) during the New Year Honours for services to football and charity.

Liam Harding