Harrison aims to continue hot streak as lads reach final in France

Shayon Harrison says he's brimming with confidence after helping to fire our Development Squad into the final of the European Under-21 Tournament in France today (Saturday 29 July).

The striker, on target from the penalty spot in yesterday's 1-0 win over Paris Saint-Germain, kept up his record of scoring in every game so far in pre-season as we beat EA Guingamp 1-0 and FC Lorient 2-0 to book our place in the final as winners of Group B in Ploufragan.

Fellow front man Ryan Loft was also on the scoresheet in the latter match, with 20-year-old Shayon all smiles as he looks forward to tomorrow's showdown with Standard Liege (kick-off 3pm local time, 2pm UK).

"I'm feeling really confident within myself, the lads are playing really well in terms of giving me service and luckily I've been putting the chances away so hopefully that continues," said the former Yeovil Town loanee, who also scored in last week's development squad friendly matches at Ebbsfleet United and Cambridge United, hitting a hat-trick in the latter.

"The boys have really helped me out so I give all the credit to them really – without them I wouldn't be able to score these goals so I'm really pleased that I've been able to help the team and I want to continue that into the season as well.

"I felt like we were the better team in both games today. We dominated the first game, maybe we weren't playing as well as we should have done in possession but defensively we never looked like we were going to concede and that's always important in tournaments when we're trying to win games, that we don't give away sloppy goals. In the second game I thought we deserved it as well, we pressed really well, looked good in possession and scored two important goals which helped us progress to the final.

"Christian (Maghoma) and Japhet (Tanganga) have looked so good defensively, so strong, and they’ve never looked like conceding a goal to be honest so that gives us forward players a lot of confidence too."

On his hopes for the final, Shayon added: "I've watched a little bit of Standard Liege, they look like a good side and they look as though they like to play like us so I think it will be a good football match but hopefully I can score in the biggest game of them all, the final, and hopefully we can lift the trophy. I'm really looking forward to it and feeling confident."

Once again playing matches of 25 minutes each way, we were indebted to goalkeeper Jonathan De Bie in this morning’s game against Guingamp for a stunning save to push a powerful header around the post, before Harrison struck in the 33rd minute after being played in by Joe Pritchard.

Later in the day against Lorient, we might have taken the lead when Tanganga cleared the ball out from the back and a defensive error allowed Harrison to burst through on goal. The striker opted to square it to the supporting Samuel Shashoua, though, and Lorient were able to recover and clear their lines.

The introduction of Shilow Tracey gave us fresh impetus and he came up with two assists from the left side in the closing stages. First of all, his deflected cross caused Lorient problems and Loft showed his predatory instincts to drive the ball home with nine minutes of normal time remaining. Then, Tracey counter-attacked down his flank once more and slid the ball across for Harrison to finish in stoppage time, completing a 2-0 win.

Spurs (v EA Guingamp): De Bie, Lock, Bennetts, Amos, C Maghoma, Tanganga, Harrison, Skipp (Tracey 31), Loft (Sterling 31), Duncan, Pritchard (Roles 45).

Spurs (v FC Lorient): Freeman, Hinds, Bennetts, Skipp, C Maghoma, Tanganga, Sterling (Tracey 38), Duncan (Amos 25), Harrison, Roles (Pritchard 25), S Shashoua (Loft 38).