No-one will be striving harder than former Bradford City left back Ben Parker to help Leeds United complete the job they started at the Emirates by knocking Arsenal out of the FA Cup in tomorrow night’s Elland Road replay.

The 23-year-old left back from Pontefract, who played 39 league games while on loan at Valley Parade in 2006-07, still can’t believe he tugged Theo Walcott’s shirt in the 90th minute to concede that equalising penalty, driven confidently home by Cesc Fabregas.

With George McCartney back at Elland Road for a second loan stint from Sunderland, Parker was dropped to substitute for United’s 4-0 win over Scunthorpe on Saturday, but McCartney is ineligible for the cup replay.

Now Parker, who has had more injuries and surgery in the last 18 months than most players go through in their entire careers, desperately wants to pay back manager Simon Grayson and the club for sticking by him during the dark days.

“Hopefully I will repay the gaffer by giving away no more penalties,” said Parker, who has managed to retain his humour despite that tug on Walcott’s arm. He laughed: “There has been a lot of flak flying around from the lads saying I did the chairman a big favour by setting up a money-spinning replay. I am still waiting for a phone call from Ken Bates to thank me!

“Seriously, I am just thankful to have another chance at Elland Road. The tug on Theo was a spur of the moment thing. Looking back, I can’t believe I did it, but I was just a bit tired and sick of seeing him get in behind me.

“It was a stupid moment but thankfully it didn’t cost us in terms of losing the game. I certainly won’t be pulling his arm again in the replay! Theo is pretty quick and the game was only my second after a long time out injured.

“We tried to deal with him by sending on Leigh Bromby and Andy Hughes – which is testament to the respect we showed him.”

Parker’s medical record sounds like an episode from Casualty – a torn hamstring, a hip operation, a torn Achilles and then further surgery on BOTH hips.

“The Botox will have to wait a bit longer,” he joked. “I’ve had a lot of surgery for my age but hopefully that’s the end of serious injuries for the rest of my career.

“Beating Arsenal would help to make up for all that time I spent in rehab but the main aim is to help the club win promotion to the Premiership.

"I owe so much to the physios, especially Harvey Sharman, who has seen more of me than his wife over the last 18 months. He is so relieved to see me out on the pitch.”

Apart from that fateful tug of the arm, Ben feels he did “a solid job” at the Emirates and he revealed: “The gaffer didn’t dwell on it too much. He just told us to take away the positives from the game, and we’ve taken that on board.

“We will go into tomorrow's replay full of confidence. There will be a great atmosphere at Elland Road and a 40,000 crowd. It is up to Arsenal to produce there. If they don’t, they know they are in for another very tough game.”

Victory over the Gunners would create a piece of history for Leeds, who have never won an FA Cup replay against Arsenal despite plenty of attempts, including a seven-hour marathon in the fourth round ten years ago.