"BURNLEY will play Tottenham Hotspur at Turf Moor." That draw a month ago was enough to set spines tingling among a certain generation of football fans.

A generation that remembers when that fixture was the equivalent of Manchester United playing Liverpool today.

And one spine that certainly tingled belongs to Clarets legend Jimmy Robson.

On Wednesday night he will take his usual place in the players' tunnel to watch the big game but 40 years ago he was in the thick of the action as the two sides met in the FA Cup Final.

"We always used to have good games against Spurs, in the Cup and the League," explained the striker who secured his place in the history books when he scored the 100th Cup Final goal at Wembley.

"To be honest a goal is a goal but to play in a final is something you always dreamed about. In the dream you always won the game but I would rather have played and lost than not played at all and it was a great experience."

That was just one of the classic encounters involving the two sides that led the rest at the start of the sixties.

The Clarets were champions in 1960, Spurs did the double a year later and then in 1962 came the meeting at Wembley with the London giants winning 3-1.

But two other matches stick in Robson's memory, one at Turf Moor and one at White hart Lane.

"The year we won the championship I remember we beat them 2-0 at Turf," he said. "It was a great game simply because of the performance of both teams.

"The other game a lot of people recall is when we played Spurs in London just after a match in the European Cup at Reims.

"We had gone straight to London and it was terrible weather, really wet, and after 30 minutes we were 4-0 down.

"We got a goal back just before half time and we kept on scoring. Even when it got back to 4-4 there were chances for both sides to win it.

"At that time Spurs were always looked upon as the purists' side and they certainly had some great players. They had Greavsie and Bob Smith, a typical English style centre forward.

"They had good wingers like Cliff Jones who was a rarity because he could head the ball so well. Then there was John White who used to float around the game, causing havoc.

"At the back they had Danny Blanchflower and Dave Mackay, Dave a real tackler, Danny who was a great footballer."

Neither side has ever scaled the heights of four decades ago but Robson is hoping that some of the magic from the era will be felt at Turf Moor tomorrow night.

"It is a long time since I have seen a Premier League club in live action," admitted Robson who is busy with his work at the Clarets' centre of excellence.

"I am looking forward to seeing how they play, watching the movement because there is a difference. Burnley fans had a glimpse of that against Portsmouth with Paul Merson's play.

"But I think the lads have got a chance because they are at home and it is a one off. There will be no trouble about getting them up for it and it should be well worth getting along to Turf to watch it."

Robson has played his part in the great history between the two clubs - tomorrow night he is looking forward to watching the next chapter.