MICHAEL Dawson has hailed Spurs victories over Arsenal and Chelsea as the perfect remedy to his FA Cup pain, but admits that his Wembley slip will haunt him forever. The 26-year-old lost his footing on the much-maligned Wembley turf...

By Ben Pearce

MICHAEL Dawson has hailed Spurs' victories over Arsenal and Chelsea as the perfect remedy to his FA Cup pain, but admits that his Wembley slip will haunt him forever.

The 26-year-old lost his footing on the much-maligned Wembley turf in the Cup semi-final two weeks ago, allowing Frederic Piquionne to open the scoring for Portsmouth in extra-time.

The south coast outfit went on to win 2-0 and deny Tottenham a place in the final. But, just six days later, Spurs were celebrating victory over Chelsea - having also overcome north London rivals Arsenal less than 72 hours previously.

"I was very low after Wembley, that will stay with me for the rest of my life," said Dawson. "The Monday and Tuesday were hard days for me but I was getting texts on the Wednesday saying how you can't believe how football can turn around from so low to so high in the space of a few days.

"I think you saw after the Arsenal game I got a little bit excited and threw my shirt in the crowd. Emotion just took over. It was a great night and Saturday was great as well.

"I don't see why you can't pick up points like we have against the top teams. That's what we're striving for and over the last week or so that's what we've done and probably proved a few people wrong.

"We know what we're striving for, and the lads are working their socks off to try and achieve that. We want to be where Chelsea, Man United and Arsenal are - in that top four on a regular basis. We are still aiming for that and let's hope we can start this year by finishing fourth. It's in our own hands now. We've still got some tough games coming up but fingers crossed, come May 9, it will be us."

Dawson is aware that he will face two of the country's top strikers in his final four games - Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez, who admits that Dawson is the best English centre-back he has played against.

"That's some compliment, the way he's played this season. Let's hope he's saying that in a couple of weeks!" said Dawson.

"Rooney's also been fantastic this season. It's going to be another good test on Saturday, which I love. Another three points and it will be nine points out of nine!