Derby stories

"To score against Arsenal with my boot off (his first derby in 1988) was class - especially against my mate, Dave Seaman! The atmosphere at White Hart Lane was fantastic. That season after the World Cup, 1990/1991, I couldn’t do a thing wrong.

"The team spirit was phenomenal. The craic in the dressing room was unbelievable. Terry Venables was the right man for us, he had the character and all the lads fed off him. He was amazing to everyone, not just myself, his man-to-man management was fantastic. The players, the staff, everyone was class and the team spirit was phenomenal. We had a great team."

"Arsenal had dominated the league that season and they were going for the double. We hadn’t had a particularly good season and we were clearly underdogs going into the game, but we knew what we had to do. I remember myself and Gary Lineker telling everyone beforehand that we’d heard that Arsenal had already made their FA Cup Final song and that the players had already had their suits fitted, just to get our players wound up!

"Gazza had just come back from an operation. Was he fully fit? Well, that free-kick was one of the best ever seen at Wembley. When we got the free-kick, I thought it was a bit too far out for him. I talk to Paul about this quite often. He has a photograph, and as he runs up to take the free-kick, I’m standing to the right of him, just outside the box. I was marked by Alan Smith, who is a lot taller than me. I was going to make a decoy run across the box to take Alan Smith away from the area where Paul was aiming. As I made my run across the box, I looked, Paul’s hit the ball and it’s coming straight for my head! I ducked, the ball went straight over my head and into the top corner. Gazza has a photo of me ducking and the ball going just over my head. I’m claiming an assist for that one!

"We completely outplayed Arsenal that day. Everyone was on top form, everything clicked. It wasn’t expected that we’d go through but it wasn’t good fortune, we went through because we completely outplayed the champions - and we stopped Arsenal doing the double. When the final whistle went it was one of those moments when you look around the stadium.... the look on the fans’ faces, that jubilation, we wanted to celebrate as long as possible. We were underdogs, hadn’t been playing that well, hadn’t had a great seasont, but on that day, it was an outstanding team performance."

"We all knew what it meant to the fans, to us as players and our families as well. We just knew we couldn’t lose this game. There was so much at stake. It stopped them winning the double! The most pleasing thing was the way we played on the day. We were exceptional. It was a typical performance from that side - when we played well, when it clicked and we got it right, we were a match for anyone, as that day proved.

"Gazza was just Gazza, brilliant. Those moments are what you play for, winning a game of that importance and to be in the dressing room to celebrate with team-mates, staff and with the fans. It was an amazing day, one of my best moments... beating Arsenal in the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley will live with me forever."

"We’d played Arsenal twice in the league and we actually gave them a bit of a chasing at White Hart Lane, a game that ended 0-0, David Seaman was unbelievable that day. They had only lost a couple of times, but we knew we had the beating of them, and we played exceptionally well. In the first half-hour, that was as good a performance as I was involved in, especially considering the quality of the opposition and how good they were defensively, we pulled them around all over the place, they couldn’t cope with us. We were hanging on more in the second half, but we had something to hang on to.

"You knew how much it meant to everyone and that’s why it was so special. We had a good time afterwards. I remember getting into the dressing room and asking Terry Venables if we could go back out to celebrate more with the fans. It felt that good, so we went back out!"