'Prime Zidane' - Chesterfield youth coach goes viral after Tamworth-Tottenham Hotspur FA Cup clash

The 32-year-old, who played for the Spireites between 2019 and 2022 after a previous loan spell, and is now a coach in the academy, was a commanding presence at the back as National League Tamworth deservedly held Premier League Spurs to a 0-0 draw in 90 minutes in the FA Cup third round on Sunday, before eventually losing 3-0 after extra-time. Sadly, had replays not been scrapped, they would have earned themselves a trip to Tottenham’s incredible state-of-the-art 60,000 capacity stadium which would have banked them hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The non-league side were extremely well-organised and even could have won it late on with one of the last kicks in 90 minutes at the Lamb Ground. It took Spurs 101 minutes to make the breakthrough, and that was an own goal, before two further strikes from Dejan Kulusevski and Brennan Johnson spared the visitors from being humiliated by a team 96 places below them in the football pyramid.

The occasion marked what the FA Cup is all about, as the part-timers, who only train twice a week, went toe-to-toe with the top-flight super stars, on an astroturf pitch and with one of the nets needing to be fixed seconds before kick-off.

It will be a day Hollis will never forget, having been named man of the match for his heroics, including heading one effort off the line and for his rock solid overall defensive play. Not only that, he had everyone in the ground and watching on TV cheering and laughing when he performanced a risky but brilliant piece of skill, likened to that of Zinedine Zidane, when he did a ‘roulette’ on the ball to cheekily get away from Spurs midfielder Pape Sarr, inside his own half.

Reflecting on his outrageous tekkers, Hollis said: “Their manager (Ange Postecoglou) has just said to me ‘that’s good enough to get you through the door here’ and I said believe it or not I have never done it before. That’s not my game, you’ll never see that again.”

You can’t blame Hollis if he is showing the academy lads clips of it all week. And who can blame him. As for Spurs, they have been drawn away to Aston Villa in the next round, but they will need to play better than they did on Sunday if they are to progress.