Spurs stories | Off The Shelf | Paul Allen - West Ham, Spurs, and a hat-trick of FA Cup Finals

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 series, we've returned to those 30 episodes to bring you some of those stories as our legends told us - their Spurs life in their words.

Next up, as we prepare to face West Ham on Saturday, a player who made history in the 1980 FA Cup Final before experiencing the joy and pain of another two - well, three, if you consider the magnitude of our 1991 FA Cup semi-final against Arsenal, also at Wembley.

Paul Allen | Off The Shelf, EP. 19

Paul Allen played 444 of his 587 career league matches for West Ham and Spurs - but it's in the FA Cup where his biggest memories were made.

Born in Aveley and part of the Allen footballing dynasty - he played alongside his cousin, Clive, at Spurs - Paul joined West Ham as an apprentice in 1978, signing professional forms a year later.

Within a month, he'd made his league debut and by the end of the season, he made national headlines by becoming the youngest player to feature in an FA Cup Final at Wembley aged 17 years, 256 days* as the Hammers, then in the old Second Division, toppled Arsenal 1-0 via a rare header from Trevor Brooking. Paul might have scored as well - he was clean through on goal when he was chopped down by Willie Young.

After making 197 senior appearances for West Ham, he switched east London for N17 in June, 1985. Paul was soon back at Wembley but this time FA Cup Final joy turned to pain as David Pleat's fine 1986/87 team lost out to Coventry City, having finished third in the First Division and reached the semi-finals of the League Cup.

He soon made amends, though. In 1991, he was a key member of Terry Venables' team that first beat Arsenal in the first FA Cup semi-final at Wembley - denying the Gunners a double - before toppling Brian Clough's Nottingham Forest in the final. Paul played his part as we came from behind in the final, claiming the assist for Paul Stewart's equaliser as we won 2-1.

Voted our Members' Player of the Year for 1992/93, Paul made 370 appearances, scoring 28 goals, before a move to Southampton in 1993. He subsequently had spells at Swindon Town, Bristol City and Millwall and played briefly for Purfleet and Ashford Town before taking up a role at the PFA.

1980 | West Ham 1-0 Arsenal

West Ham, then in the Second Division, shocked Arsenal in the final as Trevor Brooking's header took the famous trophy to Upton Park...

Paul: “I was a year out of school when I broke into the first team. So, I signed the professional contract at 17 in the July, in September I broke into the first team and at the end of that season, I was playing in an FA Cup Final! At the time, it was one of two games that was live on the television. I can remember getting up as a young boy, watching the build up to the game, pre-match, post-match. It was a real weekend festival of football that you didn't get normally throughout the year. And there I was, my first season in professional football, and I was going to be a part of that special day. I had no nerves, there's that sense of you want to do well, you want to play well, you don't want to let your family down, your fans down, but at 17, I was just very confident, relaxed. I can still remember on the Thursday, they mentioned in the press that I could become the youngest player if I played, but it wasn't confirmed. Friday, I went in, we trained, they announced the team, and when I got home, I couldn't tell my dad what the team was! I just knew that I was playing. I can still remember coming out of the dressing room, where you don't really hear that much, and then all of a sudden I went into that tunnel and the noise, and then it started... the nerves started a little bit then when I walked out onto the pitch! I won the FA Youth Cup the year after winning the FA Cup. Clive always smiles at that. I remember my youth team manager actually said that to me the following year, I think you've done this back to front, Paul! You're supposed to win the FA Youth Cup the first year, the FA Cup the following year! I did it the other way around!"

1987 | Coventry City 3-2 Spurs

Our brilliant team of 1986/87 - including Clive Allen's record 49 goals in all competitions - were left without reward after finishing third in Division One and reaching the semi-finals of the League Cup, we were left stunned by Coventry City's 3-2 win in the FA Cup Final...

Paul: "It's what you dream of as a player, to be a part of a special team like that, to go out onto the pitch thinking, 'we're going to win today, we've got such a great team'. We played that open, expansive football, we outscored most teams over the course of the season. We beat Liverpool home and away that year. Everton won the league - we beat them at home. We had such a strong team, a great team, from Ray Clemence all the way through. It was an exciting team to be a part of, it really was. That team that is still quite revered even now, it's just so sad that there's nothing to actually show for it, then we lost Glenn Hoddle, Richard Gough... players who you can't replace quickly. The fact we didn't win anything in that team, I think, always hurts me to this day, professionally as a player. Yet, it was still special to be in that team. Coventry... we got off to a great start, but we just didn't play on that day like we had done over the course of the season. I don't know why. It just didn't seem... when I look back now, it didn't seem quite right. Clive, we probably took it for granted a little bit that Clive was up there on his own and week after week he was scoring goals, and I mean not single goals, it was two, three goals, hat-tricks... how amazing, what an achievement that was, because he was always unassuming, Clive, it was always, 'onto the next game'. To think over a course of a season, he scored 49 goals. If I ever say that to anyone now, they're in disbelief!"

1991 | Spurs 2-1 Forest

After beating Arsenal 3-1 in the first FA Cup semi-final to be played at Wembley, Terry Venables' team recovered from Paul Gacoigne's injury, going 1-0 down, having a goal disallowed and seeing Gary Lineker's penalty saved to beat Forest...

Paul: "Arsenal were on for the double, weren't they? That was motivation for us. There were so many different factors. The first semi-final at Wembley, a north London derby against Arsenal. Every player in that dressing room played to their full potential on the day. I thought we came out worthy winners and we beat a team that won the league 3-1 on the day and could have been more. I could see Gazza lining up the free-kick... I wasn't sure what he was going to do, but the last thing that I thought he was going to do was go for goal. What a start, what an execution, from that distance, top corner. He just had that ability, he could do those magical things. That settled us down really, really quickly as a team and just went from strength to strength. It was just great to be a part of, but we came off thinking what we've done is amazing, but now we've got to switch off and try and concentrate on the final. For me, that was one of the special moments in my career, one that I'll never forget. I remember the final, at half-time, the difficulty was being trying to be positive as you walked off, because we had a goal disallowed, which apparently was a genuine, credible goal. Gary Lineker missed the penalty, and I've never seen Gary miss a penalty before. We lost Gazza, who was our talisman, and then we conceded just before half-time, and you're walking back to the dressing room trying to stay positive, trying to stay focused, but you're thinking, 'this is going to be a tough day'. But we rallied around in the dressing room. Terry Venables got behind the players, got behind the team, and as a team, I think we wanted to do it for Gazza, because it's always a sad memory for me to think that he played such a pivotal part in us getting there, and then he wasn't there at the end to collect a medal that he deserved."

*James Prinsep (17y, 245 days) appeared for Clapham Rovers in the 1879 final at the Kennington Oval, Curtis Weston (17y, 119 days) played for Millwall in the 2004 final at Cardiff.