Spurs late show spares Ange's blushes
Late goals to Djed Spence and Brennan Johnson lifted a flat Tottenham outfit to a 2-1 win over Coventry in their Carabao Cup third round clash, easing the pressure on manager Ange Postecoglou.
Tottenham produced a late turnaround to scrape through to the Carabao Cup's fourth round with a narrow 2-1 victory over a spirited Coventry City.
The Championship side took a deserved lead at the Coventry Building Society Arena through Brandon Thomas-Asante, but Djed Spence and Brennan Johnson struck late on to snatch victory from under their noses.
Coventry carried the greater threat during the first half, in which Tottenham failed to register a single shot on goal. Jack Rudoni saw a goalbound shot blocked by Destiny Udogie, while Norman Bassette fired narrowly over from a tight angle soon after.
Spurs then had Ben Davies to thank on the hour mark, when the skipper's sliding intervention prevented Haji Wright slotting into an empty net following a mix-up between Fraser Forster and Radu Dragusin.
However, the host broke through just three minutes later when Thomas-Asante turned in Bassette's cross from close range.
There was to be a late twist, though. With two minutes remaining, Spence rounded off a fine team move and, with penalties looming, Johnson raced onto Rodrigo Bentancur's throughball to complete the turnaround in the second minute of stoppage time.
Earlier, Postecoglou defended his comment about "always" winning trophies in his second season after the defeat to Arsenal last weekend.
The Australian was left confused and amazed by the negative reaction to his comments and is still confident that he can lead Spurs to a trophy this season.
"It's amazing, isn't it? I just stated a fact. Am I supposed to just lie or just say it never happened,” Postecoglou said. “But do you really think it's me sort of boasting? It's just confusing to me that people are making a big deal out of something. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to answer something that is true.
"I've just said something that's true, and it seems like it's upset a lot of people for some reason. In my 26 years of managing, I’ve had success and most of that has come in the second year, not all of it. Sometimes it’s happened in the first year, sometimes in the third year.
“I don’t see why that puts extra pressure. It doesn’t put extra pressure on me because I love the fact that I’ve done that. It’s what I want to do here.
“I’d like to think that just saying the truth is the way to go forward but I think sometimes that’s too confronting for people, they’d much rather I didn’t."
