'It was like being hit by a tank!' - Teddy on Gazza, Spurs v Millwall, 1988

Teddy Sheringham’s first memory of White Hart Lane is a bit of a blur - apart from a coming together with a certain Paul Gascoigne! As we prepare to face Millwall in the FA Cup on Sunday, the legendary striker turned the clock back to 1988...

Teddy Sheringham first stepped out at the Lane as a Millwall player almost 30 years ago.

Promoted from the old Division Two, the Lions were in third place after a superb start to their first season in Division One when they arrived at the Lane on December 10, 1988.

In the end, goals from Gazza and Chris Waddle saw us home to a 2-0 win and we’d go on to finish third in 1988-89 while Millwall, who topped the table early in the season, finished a commendable 10th with Teddy and Tony Cascarino firing in the goals.

“I don’t remember too much about the game but I do remember Gazza hitting me with a challenge,” reflected Teddy, who joined us from Forest in August, 1992 and went on to score 124 goals in 277 appearances over two spells for us.

"I was on the edge of Tottenham’s box and we was coming back towards his own goal. I turned back into midfield and he hit me with a challenge that I didn’t see coming.

“I was thinking ‘what the…?’ I didn’t expect that from him! It was like being hit by a tank! I always thought he was a clever, crafty player, I didn’t realise he could tackle as well!

“That was my first insight into Gazza being more of an all-rounder. Funnily enough, I didn’t get him back for that. I was normally quite good at getting people back, but I never did for that one!”

Below: Teddy Sheringham

Teddy joined Millwall from Leytonstone & Ilford at the age of 16 and played his part in an amazing rise from Division Three (now League One) to Division One (Premier League). He scored 111 goals in 262 appearances before moving to Forest in 1991 and then here to Spurs in 1992. Of course, everyone knows Teddy’s story from there - Spurs, England, Euro 96, United, the treble, back to Spurs, playing until he was 42...

Now Millwall are back at the Lane and people are again talking about those early days. “It’s amazing, isn’t it?" said Teddy. "What a fixture, the quarter-final of the FA Cup and I don’t think Millwall would want to play a team like Lincoln at this stage, I think they’d want to play Tottenham Hotspur.

“It’s a fixture the Millwall players will look back on in years to come and think ‘remember that game at Tottenham?’ and it all depends how it pans out on the day for how those memories will be.”

Look out for more from Teddy in Sunday’s official matchday programme...