KEVIN DEARDEN ranks his League Two promotion with Torquay United over his Premier League debut with Tottenham Hotsppur.
The goalkeeper came through the ranks at White Hart Lane in the early 1990s.
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He found himself initially stuck behind his hero Ray Clemence – before Erik “The Viking” Thorstvedt and Bobby Mimms came along.
Dearden was around the first team squad at Spurs but wasn’t handed an opportunity… until an injury to Thorstvedt during a clash with Nottingham Forest during the 1992-93 season saw his number called.
Speaking to Planet Football, Dearden recounted: “I’d been there a long time, I was 22, I felt that I was ready – I’d been on loan, I’d played in League One, League Two and the Championship with Hull.
“I was on the bench, I obviously I didn’t wish anyone any injury, but I felt I was ready if called upon.
“Erik dived at the base of the post, he fractured his finger or his thumb, and at half-time I was told I was on.
“I didn’t have much time to think about it, I just went out and it means I didn’t take in the enormity of it.
“We were losing 2-1 at half-time and that was the result in the end, so I always tell everyone that I never let a goal in in the Premier League!”
Despite a promising debut, Dearden would never play for Spurs again.
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He continued: “The next game I was on the bench against Oldham at home, and they were a bottom four or five team, and I thought if I was to ever start a game for Spurs this was it.
“But they brought Ian Walker back in and that told me the writing was on the wall. I knew then my time was up and it was just a case then of where to, really.”
After just one Spurs appearance and nine loans away from White Hart Lane, Dearden finally left permanently.
He moved to Brentford, where he would get his wish of regular first-team football – playing over 200 times in six years.
Following two subsequent seasons with Wrexham he moved on to Torquay – where he would enjoy the highlight of his career.
Dearden added: “The year we got promoted with Torquay from League Two to League One I look back on more fondly. I felt I achieved something with a group of players.
“The budget was minuscule, we had a skeleton squad, but we had a togetherness and a team ethic which was second-to-none.
“For Torquay to get promoted that season was unbelievable and we almost stayed up the following year. I look on that more fondly than the Spurs game, as it seems a very, very long time ago now.”
Having earned his coaching badges while still a player, Dearden moved seamlessly into his new career after hanging up his boots in 2006.
Now 53, he works as a goalkeeping coach with hometown club Luton, having also done the same job at Brentford, Millwall and Leyton Orient.
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