I keep in touch with the Crazy Gang ...we’re all on WhatsApp!
ONE TO ELEVEN FA CUP SPECIAL
1 FIRST FOOTBALL TBALL MEMORY
We lived in Willesden, which is not far from Wembley, and I’d watch the FA Cup buses come past the end of our road.
2 BEST PLAYER I’VE PLAYED WITH
For natural ability, it’s got to be Tis (Matt Le Tissier) and Gazza. What they could do was pretty special.
3 TOUGHEST OPPONENT
Billy Whitehurst was tough. Every cross you came for, you knew you were going to get hit — even if he had no chance of winning the ball. If you stopped coming then he had won, so you just had to keep getting hit!
4 FAVOURITE FOOTBALLING MOMENT
It has to be saving the penalty in the Cup final. I keep in touch with quite a lot of the Cup final team. We’ve got a WhatsApp group. We call them the Super Dons. Wally Downes, who is out in India, set it up. I’ll wake up to 40-odd texts. We talk about things in football now that we did 30-odd years ago. Gareth Southgate took England to an army camp but we did that every pre-season. We would fire live ammunition, do night raids . . . things you would never associate with professional football.
5 CHILDHOOD FOOTBALLING HERO
I was a QPR fan growing up and met Phil Parkes. I took some penalties against him and won a trophy. Eventually I came to be down the other end of a pitch to him. He said: ‘You’ve got to stop saying I’m your childhood hero — you make me sound ancient!’
6 TOUGHEST AWAY GROUND
The old Den. Whenever you had to go behind the goal to get the ball you were taking your life in your hands!
7 FAVOURITE GROUND
I loved playing at White Hart Lane — the atmosphere, everything about it. Generally, I played well there.
8 KARAOKE SONG
At most clubs you have initiations and I did Tom Jones. I think it might have been delilah.
9 BIGGEST REGRET
When Wimbledon won the FA Cup we couldn’t play in Europe because of the Heysel ban. I think we would have taken Europe by storm! I left after the Cup final. If we had been in Europe, it could have made me stay.
10 DREAM DINNER-PARTY GUESTS
I’d go for some of the Super Dons. Wally is good fun no matter where we are. But salad cream wouldn’t be on the menu . . . if it was it would be in a plastic container! The irony was that my brother worked for Heinz. He used to give me salad cream in the old glass containers and that is what fell on my foot. It was my worst ever injury.
11 IF I WASN’T A FOOTBALLER
Before I turned professional I worked as a printer. When I was at Wimbledon the salaries weren’t great so I worked through the summer as a glazier. I got paid more money glazing than through football!