Former Tottenham midfielder Jamie O’Hara has opened up on the time he ‘poked the bear’ with Steven Gerrard.
The Liverpool legend was regarded as one of the best players on the planet in his prime, making him a prime target for opposition players to try and beat.
O’Hara was in the Tottenham team that faced Liverpool on the final day of the 2007/08 team, and has opened up on trying to “smash” Gerrard.
However, it did not go to plan for the former Spurs graduate, who admits to Gerrard ‘running rings around him’, before being taken off at half time.
“I remember trying to get near Gerrard. I’d just got into the Spurs side, I was young, I was hungry, I was fit,” O’Hara told talkSPORT.
“I remember playing against him at White Hart Lane. I thought, ‘first few minutes I’ve got to smash him, I’m going to steam into him, I’ll do him today’.
“The first one, it was a soft header, I’ve got right over the top of him and gone, ‘bosh! Get some of that!’.
“He’s just turned around and given me a look.
"It was like I’d just poked a bear because after that, he literally run rings around me and snapped me in half about four times.
“He was hitting 70-yard passes, he nutmegged me when I tried to steam into him.
"He’d received the ball on the half-turn, I didn’t even know he could see me, nutmegged me and sprayed one about 80 yards.
“I got dragged off at half-time. I got sold to Wolves after that!
“I idolised Gerrard and [Paul] Scholes. I said to my dad, ‘dad, that is one player.'”
Liverpool won the game 2-0 in north London, with goals from Andriy Voronin and Fernando Torres sealing the points for Rafa Benitez’s Reds.
