Former Tottenham youth player could not believe his luck in the Carabao Cup draw – until he realised who he could end up marking

Luke Prosser could feel that something big was about to happen. The Colchester captain knew the numbers of the top Premier League clubs and, as the draw for the Carabao Cup third round went on, none had come out. A measure of trepidation underpinned the excitement. “I was thinking: ‘What if it’s one of them? Say we get Man City away?” Prosser says. “They beat Burton 9-0 last season. You don’t want to get turned over silly.”

Then it happened. League Two Colchester, who had beaten Crystal Palace on penalties at Selhurst Park, came out first and they were swiftly followed by Tottenham. For Prosser, a former Spurs youth player and lifelong supporter of the club, the surge of emotion was indescribable. This was the jackpot.

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“I couldn’t believe it,” the centre-half says. “My phone started going mad. My family are Spurs through and through and they were all going mad on our WhatsApp group. And then, straight away, you’re thinking: ‘I’ve got to mark Harry Kane.’ That was one of the first things that went through my head.”

It is unclear whether Prosser will face Kane at Colchester on Tuesnight as Mauricio Pochettino considers whether to rest the striker. But that is a detail in a much broader story. Ever since he left Spurs as a 16-year-old in 2004, having been overlooked for a YTS contract, Prosser has dreamed of getting on the pitch in a competitive game against them. At the age of 31 and as he closes in on 300 appearances for Football League clubs, it is finally on.

Prosser’s Spurs’ credentials are impeccable. His father, Kevin, took him to his first game at White Hart Lane as an eight-year-old – a Boxing Day win over Southampton – and he can even count Cliff Jones, the legendary Welsh winger from the club’s 1961 Double-winning team, as a family friend. Prosser grew up in Hertfordshire – two minutes from Jones’s house – and was close to Jones’s grandson Scott.

“I’ve known Cliff all my life – he’s one of the nicest blokes,” Prosser says. “He met me in the tunnel at White Hart Lane before the Port Vale cup tie and we had a picture. He also wrote me a letter to say how proud he was, which he left in my place in the dressing room. I used to do Cliff’s soccer schools and I was best friends with Scott, growing up. Scott and his mum, Mandy, lived with Cliff.

“We used to love going into Cliff’s trophy room at the house. We were just in awe, although as a young kid you don’t realise the full extent of what he achieved. When you’re with other people, they say ‘the Wales legend’ and compare him to Gareth Bale. And you’re thinking: ‘Really? Cliff?!’ He’s 84 and is in unbelievable shape but he always has been. On his soccer schools, he’d join in and take everyone on.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Luke Prosser celebrates after Colchester’s win at Oldham in August. Photograph: Richard Blaxall/Shutterstock

Prosser’s face lights with enthusiasm as he talks about Spurs. He remembers how he was taken to watch the first-team train, as part of his attendance at Jones’s soccer school, and being thrilled to get David Ginola’s autograph, although that paled when set against playing at White Hart Lane while on the club’s books. He still watches the team on TV as a fan and was distraught when they lost the Champions League final.

Prosser was taken on when he was 10, having been scouted as he played at a soccer school run by Micky Hazard, another fomer Spurs favourite. “Gary Hooper, who went on to play for Celtic, was in my year and he was the one who you’d probably say has come out best, although he left when he was 14,” Prosser says. “He worked his way up through non-league at Grays. Jake Livermore was in the year below and Jamie O’Hara was in the year above. Charlie Sheringham was also in my year and his dad, Teddy, would always be at training so everyone would be buzzing at that.

“Generally, everyone at my school would have supported Spurs so to play for them as a young kid was a fantastic feeling.”

As with virtually every professional footballer, Prosser saw youth players who were better than him and, in his opinion, would surely go on to make the grade. They did not. Perhaps, it was because of their attitude, their unwillingness to make the sacrifices that were necessary.

Prosser was never going to fall down on that front. He came to see the writing on the wall at Spurs when he did not “play up” for the under-17s and the rejection, while devastating, was grimly expected. But he got a deal at Port Vale almost immediately and he has built his career upon a remorseless work ethic, a determination to wring every last drop from his talent.

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There is an old-school edge to him, possibly because of his Port Vale apprenticeship, when he lived in digs with 10 other boys and, in his words, cleaned everything from senior players’ boots and the manager’s car to the whole stadium. There is a humility, too, which is evident when he talks about his younger sister, Abbie, who was a star of the women’s youth game. She was a part of the England Under-19 squad that won the European Championship in 2009 and finished as the runners-up in 2010.

“It’s funny when the chauffeur pulls up and your sister gets in and goes off with England and I’m sitting there thinking: ‘Bloody hell, I’m at Port Vale here, where’s my life going?’” Prosser says, with a smile. “Abbie had a trial at Arsenal Ladies when she was little – she turned up in her Spurs kit – and she was signed within five minutes. But she ended up falling out of love with playing.”

Prosser can draw on the experience of having faced Spurs in pre-season during his time at Southend, when it did not go well. They lost 6-0 at Roots Hall in 2012 and 4-0 at the Tottenham training centre in 2015. “Kane scored a hat-trick in the first game,” Prosser says. “I didn’t think it was my hardest game ever, like I was frightened to mark him, but he’s still come off with the match ball. They had Danny Rose, Ryan Mason and Andros Townsend, while in 2015, it was Roberto Soldado, Rose and Townsend again, Nabil Bentaleb.”

Prosser is under no illusions as to the size of the challenge. Is there a script written for him?