Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou’s thoughts eventually swung to testy after Spurs dodged historic embarrassment on Sunday when they finally made the most of the ball in a 3-0 extra time defeat of Tamworth at the Lamb Ground in an FA Cup third round match.
Postecoglou began praising both Tamworth’s efforts and his team’s persistence, but question four was about a change in performance following a midweek win over Liverpool and his demeanor changed.
[ RECAP, HIGHLIGHTS — Tamworth 0-3 aet Spurs ]
“As far as I’m aware, we’re through to the next round and that was the objective of today.”
Spurs dominated the match at the National League side, as expected, as many of the familiar names started against the Lambs.
But it took a Tamworth own goal in the first period of extra time to put Spurs in front before Dejan Kulusevski and Brennan Johnson both fired home in the second frame.
But in a weekend that saw Manchester City clobber Salford City 8-0, Chelsea snap Morecambe 5-0, and Brighton beat up Norwich City 4-0, this was not expected by Postecoglou.
“Look it was a challenging game, as we expected it to be. Credit to Tamworth they made it hard for us. With the surface, it was always going to be a matter of us staying calm and being persistent in our football. We needed a goal. Their keeper pulled off a couple of good saves. We had a couple of chances we should’ve done better with but in the end we got the job done.”
What did he say before extra time? “Just stay calm and stay persistent. We knew we’d finish strong. You could see they were tiring a fair bit which would mean more space for us to play in and that’s what happened.”
Sense of relief? “It’s a game a football. You go into it knowing — every game of football there’s trepidation you could slip up because of the challenges. We had some challenges today but for the most part the boys kept their heads, handled it well. It’s very easy to lose your head on a day like this when things aren’t going your way and you realize the consequences.”
From beating Liverpool to this: “I don’t think there’s a swing in level of performance, it’s just a game of football. It’s a great leveler. It’s difficult to score goals, doesn’t matter who you are playing against. As far as I’m aware, we’re through to the next round and that was the objective of today.”
On Tamworth: “They did really well today. They should be really proud of their efforts to get to this stage. I’m sure everyone at the ground enjoyed the day, and for us, we move on.”
