Martin Chivers: An appreciation

Within the first week of the New Year, we have learned, with pride and joy, that Southampton-born-and-nurtured Ted Drake (49 Saints goals in 78 appearances, before leaving for Arsenal) has been admitted into football’s Hall of Fame. But the sad news soon followed that Martin Chivers – likewise a prolific son of Southampton (106 in 190, before leaving for Tottenham) and worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as the famed Drake – had died.

Goodness knows how many goals Martin might have added to his tally in the Saints’ promotion season of 1965/66, when he scored 30 times in the first 29 league matches, plus an FA Cup hat-trick, but then needed frequent treatment on his back, in Harley Street, to be able to play at all. It was left to Terry Paine to score most of the goals in the run-in, including the one in the final home game vs Charlton, which was made by Martin’s formidable run from halfway, an awesome triumph for his gigantic strides that left his chasing opponent helpless in his wake.

Yet despite his physical superiority, Martin suffered from a lack of confidence. His mate Norman Dean, who’d gone to lodge at the Chivers family home, recalled having to gee him up to face defenders whom he could so easily have brushed aside. That insecurity had a superstitious side to it, to the extent that he asked manager Ted Bates, early in that season, to relieve him of the No 9 shirt. Jimmy Melia was happy to wear it, as what today’s pundits call a “false nine”, when his old club, Wolves, came to The Dell in September and duly created havoc in their man-marking system.

Martin benefited from the disarray to score four times in the 9-3 romp. Then, in 11 league games from the end of November, he would score two or more goals in eight of them. But now came the back problem. With promotion won and Ron Davies signed, Martin now became less of a marked man when the crosses were coming in: “they couldn’t mark us both,” he said with a relish. As Davies top scored, nation-wide, over the next two seasons, Martin was still contributing his share. And yet teammates suggested that he’d be happier getting four goals in a 5-4 defeat than not scoring in a win.

That would continue to be said at Tottenham and Martin did not deny it – an example, for his teammate, Steve Perryman, of how “very honest” he was. We know this from Martin’s autobiography, in which he reasoned that he needed to move to Tottenham in order to “boost” his chances of adding full England caps to the 12 he had won at Under-23 level. He got his wish, joining Spurs at a fee judged to be £125,000 (Frank Saul in part-exchange, plus £45,000) which broke the British transfer record.

The exchanged players: Saul (left) and Chivers

He would go on to play 24 times for England, compared with Drake’s five, yet he struggled at first to adjust to managerial expectations at White Hart Lane. He was scoring too few goals for his manager Bill Nicholson, who asked Terry Paine how he could get his expensive new signing “to run towards the opponents’ goal.” It all worked out in the end, though, as measured by Martin’s 200 goals for Spurs in 415 appearances.

As a local boy who scored so many goals for Southampton, Martin had the qualifications to be remembered as one of the club’s all-time great forwards. But in his unflinchingly honest way, he made it clear – even in a pitchside interview at St Mary’s – that he saw himself as a Tottenham man.

Martin Harcourt Chivers
27th April 1945 – 7th January 2026

Photos from the Holley Collection.

The top photo shows Martin, in his final half-season at The Dell, tussling with Leeds United’s Norman Hunter.