You obviously have previous in The FA Cup with Spurs as a player – how special is this competition to you?
I’ve got brilliant memories of all three Finals I played, in 1981, ’82 and ’87. We lost in 1987 obviously, despite being huge favourites against Coventry, but it shows the glamour of the competition and what the tournament means to people that every time I go to Coventry, it’s still one of the major topics of conversation. That’s the magic of the Cup.
Brighton’s route to the semi-final hasn’t been easy – has that made it even more special?
It was only after Millwall that I looked at our route through. We had West Brom, fancied for promotion, Derby, fancied for promotion and Bournemouth away. I think we’ve shown a real determination to want to make progress; we haven’t played what I would call the young players; the team has been full of senior players. We have treated the competition with a lot of respect.
And the odds of making it here looked slim as the clock ticked down against Millwall in the quarter final…
You’re not wrong. I don’t think there were many people thinking we were going to make it through, myself included. The odds of getting through after being 2-0 down at 88 minutes are very slim. It doesn’t happen that often. The fact that we ended up scoring both goals into the end where our supporters were, and then took the penalties towards the same end, made it even more special.
How will you deal with the underdog tag?
We’re up against, at the moment, perhaps the best team in the world. We will have to play very well, we will have to be very disciplined and we have to hope that they have an off-day. But if you don’t think something is possible then you may as well not turn up. We will be out to make sure we do our club and the competition justice.
