Fri 07 April 2023, 12:45
Tottenham HotspurGary Stevens, 61, joined us from Brighton in 1983 and scored one of the penalties in the dramatic shoot-out against Anderlecht as we won the UEFA Cup at the end of his first season. He went on to make 200 appearances for us in all competitions until departing for Portsmouth in 1990, earning his seven England caps during his time at Spurs.
Now a pundit for Stadium Astro in Malaysia and living in Thailand, Gary made a welcome recent return to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium for our FA Cup win against Pompey in January. Gary made over 150 appearances for Brighton after signing in 1977, and played in the FA Cup Final against Manchester United in 1983. As we face the Seagulls again in the Premier League on Saturday, here's what Gary had to say about his time at Brighton and Spurs in an interview from 2017...
Joining Spurs...
"As I left Brighton (1983), we got to the FA Cup Final but got relegated, so it’s taken them 34 years (in 2017) to get back. It’s an incredible story, it really is. I went to the last-ever game at the Goldstone Ground and I went down to Hereford when they nearly went out of the Football League and the result that day kept them in the Football League (both matches in 1997). They then had ground-sharing at Gillingham, then the Withdean Stadium, an athletics stadium, and yet somehow the club survived. I had a great time at Brighton and we spent four years in the top flight, then it went into another stratosphere for me at Spurs. It also enhanced my chances of getting to where I always dreamed of playing as a kid, and that was for England."
UEFA Cup joy, 1984...
Gary played both legs of the 1984 UEFA Cup Final against Anderlecht, and scored the third penalty in the shoot-out in one of the great nights in the Club's history...
"As far as I’m concerned, it was the great night for me at White Hart Lane because we won a trophy and all the drama that went with it as well, the extra time, penalties. I took one of the penalties. That was a huge night and the last game of my first season at the club, which had been quite a difficult season for me personally because I found it difficult to adjust from being a Brighton player to being a Spurs player. The outcome of the UEFA Cup got me out of jail to a large extent that season."
That penalty...
"In all honesty it wasn’t too bad. Like of of us, I’d practised penalties in training and I knew what I was going to do with it. When I was at Brighton and Alan Mullery was the manager, another Spurs great, we had penalties in a game at the end of a pre-season tournament in Europe. He spoke to me before that about taking penalties and that night, I used exactly the same method he told me about a few years earlier. I was totally focused on the one thing I had to do, and that was score. I knew how I was going to score and my mind wasn’t on anything else, in fact I was oblivious to everything else. I had the big number 10 on my back that night as well. It’s an interesting question ‘who wore 10 when Spurs won the UEFA Cup in 1984?’ and I don’t think many people would have thought of me. Glenn Hoddle obviously didn’t play (he was injured)."
My time at Spurs...
"I was at the club for the best part of seven seasons. The most exciting aspect for me was the quality of the players I was playing alongside at that time. I look at when I first arrived and it was Ray Clemence in goal, Steve Perryman, Glenn Hoddle, a World Cup winner in Ossie Ardiles and then players who came went, Richard Gough, Chris Waddle, Gary Lineker came in, Gazza came in, just outstanding footballers. It was a joy to play with them."
