Derby stories

"There were rumours about changes, maybe myself or Jake Livermore were going to get an opportunity, but never did I think it would be me. That was nerve-wracking, but then being in the changing room before the game, I used to sit next to Ledley King, and Ledley didn't say a lot, but when he did, you knew it was important, so you listened. He said to me, 'look, you're playing, just continue everything you've been doing in training and enjoy it', and I'll always remember that.

"The goal... obviously it was special. To be honest, I've said this before, if I'd played 30 games at that point I would have brought it down, whatever, and I had visions of Arsenal breaking on a counter-attack! So, I just hit it. Luckily and thankfully, I caught it so sweetly. Even then, if you think there were 18, 19 players in the middle of the box, you still have to be lucky, hoping it makes its way through those players, and it did. It was amazing.

"I'd actually hurt my knee and it was a bit of everything, the build up, the emotion, that first half... I'd never experienced that tempo of football before. It all just came at me at a million miles an hour. I had a knee injury, it was a bit sore, and that's the reason I came off at half-time. It was nice to play a tiny part of the club reaching the goal of that season and what we were trying to do."