Keen to win his spurs in top flight

Moving house, they say, comes near the top of the list of the most stressful events in our lives. Preseason training with a Premiership club, after you've been used to the more leisurely pace of life in the second division, doesn't get a mention, but Gary Doherty, who's experienced both recently, confirms the latter is up there with the former in the `shock to the system' stakes.

"The difference is unbelievable, double sessions, morning and afternoon, the lot," he says. "At Luton you were able to ease yourself into pre-season training a little more and there was much less of it, but at Spurs?

"It's a different world really. On top of all that you're so keen to make an impression and the competition for places is so much tougher you push yourself that much harder. It was tough, but enjoyable too - now I'm just raring to go."

Whatever the coming season holds for the man born in Carndonagh, Co Donegal it can't possibly, he assumes, match the dizzy heights of the one just gone. He had been pottering along nicely at Luton, but then April happened.

A £1 million move to Spurs and an Irish senior debut at Lansdowne Road against Greece. In May, a Premiership debut at Old Trafford, all three seismic events in the 20-year-old's life happening in the space of a fortnight. Oh yeah, and he moved house too. "A helluva season," he says, laughing at the craziness of it all. "I've just about got my breath back but it was hard to take it all in. The move to Spurs was a dream, making my debut in Dublin was just fantastic and then playing at Old Trafford . . .?" In at the deep end? "The deepest of deep ends," he laughs. "But things have levelled off now and I'm just getting my head down, working hard. When you look at the quality of players at the club - people like Sol Campbell, Darren Anderton and the new lad Sergei Rebrov - you realise what you're up against and how difficult it will be to break through.

"In some ways it's like starting over again, after becoming a first team regular at Luton, but that's okay, that's what you expect when you move to a Premiership club."

Doherty has spent much of the pre-season playing with the reserves and expects to play most of his football in the months ahead at that level. "They can't ignore me forever," he says, a remark that betrays some disappointment at his exclusion from the first team squad in recent weeks, but he is realistic about the challenge ahead.

"I'm probably fourth or fifth in line for a place up front but hopefully I'll get on the bench a few times this season and get my chance - if I do it's up to me to take it.

"The same applies to Ireland, although I think there will have to be a few injuries for me to get in the senior squad this season. I just have to concentrate on doing well at Spurs and if I do maybe Mick will give me another chance."

He can, of course, also play in the centre of defence but says he has no particular preference for which position he fills, "so long as I'm in the team". But if Sol Campbell moves to pastures new there will be a vacancy at the back?

"Well, hopefully that won't happen because he's such an important player at this club. It was a big blow to the supporters when David Ginola left, they loved him so much, so nobody wants to lose Sol as well."

Ginola's departure was greeted with despair and not a little anger by the Spurs fans, the final straw for some in their uneasy relationship with George Graham.

"But they've got to have faith in him," Doherty insists. "He's already won a trophy here, he's brought in £17 million worth of players, Darren has signed a one-year extension to his contract and Sol is still here. We're a buying club now and if the supporters get behind the team I know we can have a good season."

Any chance of you succeeding Ginola as the king of White Hart Lane? "Mmm, I'm not great on the left wing." Mind you, a last minute winner in a north London derby would help and might even secure him a `shineee hair' ad campaign. Maybe not. All Doherty wants right now is a chance to prove himself. That and a cup of tea . . . but in which box did he pack the kettle?