You will be hard pressed to name many centre-forwards that were more clinical in front of goal than Jimmy Greaves.
Not only was his name synonymous with finding the back of the net, he was also famous for taking very little to settle into his new surroundings.
As a 17-year-old Greaves scored on his Chelsea debut and he went on to repeat that feat with England's Under-23s, the England senior side, AC Milan, Tottenham Hotspur and West Ham United. Incidentally, his first appearance for Spurs following his return to England from Italy came in a reserve match against Plymouth Argyle, during which he bagged two goals.
His first official outing for the North Londoners took place a few days later and 54 years ago today as the Lilywhites played host to Blackpool at White Hart Lane.
It took the £99,000 man - manager Bill Nicholson did not want to burden him with the first £100,000 player tag - 39 minutes to open his account.
Welsh winger Terry Medwin flicked on Dave Mackay's throw and with the Blackpool defence static, Greaves reacted quickest with an acrobatic volley that flew into the roof of Tony Waiters's net.
His second goal of the encounter arrived just 60 seconds later with Mackay again heavily involved. The Scot floated over a cross for Greaves, who powered in a header.
Les Allen was the provider for Greaves's hat-trick goal after the restart and in the closing stages the roles were reversed when a shot from Greaves cannoned off the post, only for Allen to turn in the rebound to score what was his second goal of the contest, which ended in a 5-2 win for the hosts.
On a personal level, the three goals were the first of 266 that Greaves went on to score for Spurs, making him the club's leading goalscorer of all time by a considerable distance.
Spurs: Brown; Baker, Norman, Henry; Mackay; Blanchflower, Medwin, Jones; Allen, White, Greaves
Liam Apicella
