Spurs stars set for West Ham return

Spurs manager Glenn Hoddle is hoping some of his injured stars will declare themselves fit for Saturday's final London derby of the season against West Ham.

Gary Doherty, Stephen Clemence, Oyvind Leonhardsen and Chris Armstrong are all expected to play for the reserves against Fulham tomorrow as part of their rehabilitation process.

However, Doherty, who hasn't played for the first team since breaking his leg in a Worthington Cup tie against Torquay earlier this season, is still a few games away from a recall.

Hoddle said: "Gary needs more match practice. He's fit but not match fit. He's had three reserve games but he's way off the tempo at top level at the moment."

Tottenham's injury problems increased during their defeat by Arsenal at the weekend. Defender Ledley King was forced off at half-time with an achilles injury while Steffen Iversen lasted only seven minutes into the second half after sustaining a dead leg.

Hoddle added: "At least we haven't got a midweek game and we can make sure we try to get some out of the treatment room if we can."

Meanwhile, skipper Teddy Sheringham insists the club's season is far from over. Sheringham has set his sights on seventh spot in the Premiership, a potential UEFA Cup slot, and is well aware of the importance of their clash against the Hammers.

West Ham have moved ahead of Spurs in the table and Sheringham wants to redress the balance. He said: "We're still hoping we can get to seventh and that's what we're going to aim for. Obviously, that makes West Ham important. Four or five teams have a chance of getting that seventh spot and we're one of them so we'll give it our all. We want to finish well."

Sheringham added that Saturday's defeat at Arsenal had been especially difficult to take after they had equalised so late in the game from the penalty spot.

Sheringham added: "It would have been nice to come away from there with a result. We had a game plan and it was going well. We knew we had to stifle them a bit and that's exactly what we did.

"We knew we would always get a chance, perhaps not from a penalty, but that's how it turned out.

"So to get beat from a penalty as well was very demoralising. It was disappointing that we couldn't do something about their title aspirations."

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