Spurs v Burnley - the special game I was brought up with

I was just a few weeks past my first Burnley game when the teams met at White Hart Lane and the Clarets came back from 4-0 down to earn a point in a 4-4 draw and the first time I saw these teams face each other was later that season when we came from 2-0 down to win 4-2 at home.

Burnley were reigning Champions and by then Spurs had secured the title. There is absolutely no doubt that these two clubs had the best teams in English football at the time, and by some considerable distance.

We met in three consecutive seasons in the FA Cup, including their wins against us in the semi-final in 1961 and the final in 1962, and my first visit to White Hart Lane was for an FA Cup tie in 1966 when we lost 4-3 in a game that saw both Willie Irvine and Alan Gilzean score hat tricks.

The names of the players roll off the tongue, but we've had some great games against them in recent years that included the heartbreaking Carling Cup semi-final almost six years ago; not forgetting our last Premier League game in 2009/10 when again we came from 2-0 down to win 4-2.

We never felt we were far away says Tom Heaton

From those heady days in the early 60s we've been to hell (bottom of the fourth division) and back whilst Spurs have endured just one season outside the top flight. But again we are in the same division and can look forward to a game at White Hart Lane.

Both of us go into the game in better form and the turn round for the Clarets has been quite dramatic after winning just four points from the first ten games. Sean Dyche was consistent in saying that the performances were better than the rewards we were getting from the games. I don't think many would disagree with that and finally the rewards have come with three wins, two draws and just one defeat in the last six games.

There was some debate last week as to whether we really were out of the bottom three on Saturday evening after the Southampton win; that we should wait until all the weekend fixtures had been played.

Either way, this is the first time we go into a game this season outside of that bottom three and that's the aim this season, to be in 17th place or higher.

Although none of the injured players are ready to return, there has been further good news this week on Sam Vokes. He's come through another under-21 game behind closed doors. He'll be playing in another on Monday although no opposition has been confirmed. It wouldn't be a surprise to see him back in a first team match day squad very soon and how good news will that be?

Matt Taylor and Stephen Ward, two of the summer signings, are some way off, and Michael Duff remains out which will mean a fifth start for Michael Keane who has settled into the team very well.

Goalkeeper Tom Heaton, who kept his fifth Premier League clean sheet last Saturday in the Southampton win, has said this week that the group are full of confidence.

He said: "We're tough to break down and we often talk about the amount of games where we've led and can show that resilience to hold out. I think that's been a key factor and that probably comes back to the framework and the ideas the gaffer puts in to us about being difficult to beat.

"It's not just the back four, I think as a team we're in a system and framework that gives us that solidarity."

He added: "I think it's fair to say results bring that confidence and we've had a few good ones in the last six games. To be brutally honest we never felt we were far away, there was never any low point because everyone believed in what we were doing and we went about it in the right way."

Tough games coming up? Tom said: "Personally I can't wait as it's another fantastic opportunity for everyone."

He's not missed a league game since joining the Clarets in the summer of 2013 and will make his 63rd league appearance tomorrow in what could be an unchanged team with Ben Mee having shaken off the illness that forced him off during the second half last week.

We could line up: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Keane, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, George Boyd, Dean Marney, David Jones, Scott Arfield, Danny Ings, Ashley Barnes. Subs from: Matt Gilks, Steven Reid, Kevin Long, Danny Lafferty, Nathaniel Chalobah, Ross Wallace, Michael Kightly, Marvin Sordell, Lukas Jutkiewicz.

Spurs had the 'under new management' sign up at the start of the season for the third time in two years. Tim Sherwood, who had taken the job during last season was replaced by Southampton boss Mauricio Pochettino.

He took over at a club that has only been outside the top half of the Premier League once in the last ten years although their 7th place finish was the lowest since 2008/09 when Harry Redknapp's rescue act took them to 8th.

They got the season off to a great start with a 1-0 win at West Ham and followed that up by beating Redknapp's current club QPR 4-0 at White Hart Lane.

It got more difficult after that and they won just once in the next seven games but things have picked up again since with four wins in the last seven games.

Strangely, they currently have a better away record than at home, 14 of their 24 points having come away from White Hart Lane. Apart from West Ham they have beaten Aston Villa, Hill and more recently Swansea on the road; at home they have recorded victories against Southampton and Everton since that big win against QPR.

They have been beaten four times at home though. Liverpool, West Brom, Newcastle and Stoke have all won there although Newcastle took a hammering this week in the Capital One Cup.

Pochettino is confident ahead of tomorrow's game and has a fully fit squad to select from including Emmanuel Adebayor who has been unavailable for recent games for personal reasons.

There has been no indication as to what the team might be but they lined up last week at Swansea: Hugo Lloris, Ben Davies, Jan Vertonghen, Federico Fazio, Kyle Walker, Christian Erikson, Nabil Bentaleb, Ryan Mason, Erik Lamela, Harry Kane, Roberto Soldado. Subs: Michel Vorm, Danny Rose, Andros Townsend, Vlad Chiriches, Benjamin Stambouli, Mousa Dembele, Nacer Chadli.

Last Time We Were There

Our last visit to White Hart Lane was our seventh Premier League game in the 2009/10 season and our fourth away from home. We'd won the three home games but lost all three on the road at Stoke, Chelsea and Liverpool.

Those three away games had ended in 2-0, 3-0 and 4-0 defeats and on the way to Spurs someone joked that this one would be 5-0. Jokes like that should never be uttered. We did lose 5-0 and our next away game was at Blackburn.

First start for David Nugent

This was one of the most difficult away games for me to watch last time in the Premier League and yet again a bad decision went against us. We'd fallen behind to a Robbie Keane penalty given away by Andre Bikey who had an absolute nightmare.

Keane was to get three more in the second half with Jermaine Jenas scoring their second to give them a 2-0 half time lead. But with the score at 1-1 we equalised through Steven Fletcher only for the assistant referee to wrongly flag him offside.

We were forced into two changes for this game. Chris McCann had picked up that serious knee injury in the previous league game and Martin Paterson had been stretchered off in the Carling Cup defeat at Barnsley. In came Joey Gudjonsson for what was his last Burnley start and David Nugent for his first Burnley start.

Our best period was in the early part of the second half. Two goals behind we had most of the play for a period although I always sensed Spurs had another gear to move up into. Once we didn't offer a goal threat they moved up that gear and that was that and we ended the game in disarray after some strange substitutions had left us disjointed.

The teams will be much changed this time around. Certainly none of the Burnley side on duty that day will feature tomorrow although we've already played against a number of the Tottenham players this season with Tom Huddlestone, Niko Kranjcar, Peter Crouch and Alan Hutton all in the squad that day. Interestingly, Gareth Bale, then a left back, was only a substitute with Benoit Assou-Ekotto, who is still at the club, preferred.

The teams were;

Tottenham: Carlo Cudicini, Vedran Corluka, Tom Huddlestone, Sebastien Bassong (Michael Dawson 88), Benoit Assou-Ekotto, Aaron Lennon (Gareth Bale 84), Jermaine Jenas, Wilson Palacios, Niko Kranjcar, Jermain Defoe (Peter Crouch 57), Robbie Keane. Subs not used: Heurelho Gomes, Alan Hutton, Kyle Naughton, David Bentley.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Andre Bikey, Stephen Jordan, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Joey Gudjonsson, Robbie Blake (Fernando Guerrero 81), Steven Fletcher (Steven Thompson 72), David Nugent (Chris Eagles 63). Subs not used: Diego Penny, Michael Duff, Steven Caldwell, Kevin McDonald.

Previous Games against Tottenham

Click HERE to see all previous results against Tottenham