Spurs stories | Off The Shelf | David Howells on Gazza and Arsenal, 1991

The first series of our official podcast Off The Shelf delivered a library's worth of Spurs stories from legends of our Club. In this written series, we've returned to those 30 episodes to bring you some of those stories as our legends told them - their Spurs life in their words.

In the latest story from the series, we start our build-up to the latest edition of the north London derby on Sunday by talking to David Howells about one of the all-time great NLD moments - Paul Gascoigne's free-kick in the history-making 1991 FA Cup semi-final at Wembley.

A Spurs legend (Legacy #553) with 335 appearances spanning 12 years after progressing through the youth and reserve team ranks, midfielder David knew Gazza inside-out, both on and off the field, throughout Gazza's four years at the Club.

Here are David's memories of the impact Gazza had that day at Wembley and what defines the great players...

David Howells | Off The Shelf, EP. 24

335 appearances, 1986-1998

"I remember we'd played at Newcastle the season before Gazza signed, they beat us 2-0, he scored both and he was on another level. It was an absolute mud pie of a pitch and he just glided across the top of the mud, just pushing people off, like there was an exclusion zone around him. You just couldn't get near him and we were like, 'wow, what a player that is, what a player', and then we signed him! So, we're thinking, 'oh my goodness, this is special, we've got the best player I'd seen not only that year, but for a long time'. It was an exciting team and an exciting time.

"That game, that Arsenal FA Cup semi-final, was the biggest game I was ever involved in up to that point and arguably bigger than the final, although once you get to the final, you can say that's the case, but there would have been no final if it hadn't been for that semi-final game. The build up to the game was unique. There'd never been a semi-final at Wembley before, Tottenham and Arsenal had never played in a semi-final before, they were running away with a league title, they were going to win the double. We'd fallen off a little bit from where we were. We started the season really well. Gazza had a bit of an injury, the team wasn't firing, but we'd played them twice already in the league and both were draws, both were 0-0 draws actually. The Highbury game was a bit of a non-event. The White Hart Lane game, we battered them, we battered them and David Seaman had an absolute stormer, Gary Lineker had two or three one-on-ones where he was normally lethal, and Seaman saved them all and we gave them a bit of a chasing that day. So, we went into the game knowing that we could do it and then Terry Venables set us up brilliantly. I actually played left side of midfield that day with Paul Allen on the right and our job was to stop their full-backs getting any service into their strikers, as well as obviously carrying an attacking threat ourselves. We'd worked tirelessly on the formation and how we're going to beat them and we all went in there confident of beating them. I don't think our fans were that confident! It was a nervy sort of approach to the game, but within minutes you just knew you, you had a feeling, we had a feeling about it. He scores that free kick and then him and Paul Allen work a bit of magic for Lineker to score the second. I know we had to withstand some pressure, but we won the game convincingly. It was one of the best performances I've been involved in at the right time, to be able to do that in those circumstances. It was an immense day and obviously it led to the final.

"It's the moments, so the moments in the big games when players like him step up and do things like that and that's why they're the great players and Gascoigne, what a player, what a player. I know it's not in question, but he had no weakness. He had no weaknesses at all. Like I said earlier, he travelled with the ball in tight areas and you couldn't get near him. He mixed his passing up long and short, he knitted it together. He didn't mind defending, the physical side, he didn't mind, he scored every type of goal. He just had everything. He literally didn't have a weakness as a player and a lot of people say, 'yeah, but his attitude..', his attitude to football was exemplary. If you mucked about in training, once you're in the session or in the game, he wouldn't accept anything other than 100% concentration and effort from anybody, and that included himself. So, that's the first thing I have to say about that. The great players always produce in the great moments and he did that constantly throughout his career."