Sat 17 January 2015, 18:19
Tottenham HotspurMauricio Pochettino was once again left to pay tribute to the character of the team after another late winner finally put Sunderland to the sword at the Lane on Saturday.
The statistics showed 25 shots to eight in our favour but we had to wait until the 88th minute for Christian Eriksen to deliver again.
Jan Vertonghen’s deflected shot handed us the lead inside three minutes but we couldn’t find a second and Seb Larsson curled home a free-kick to level on the half-hour.
Harry Kane struck the post before the break and was one of a number of players denied by Costel Pantilimon in the second half.
Hugo Lloris made a key save on 81 minutes from Adam Johnson before Christian drilled in off the post – his fifth winning goal of the season and eighth in the Premier League, toppling already his league total from last term.
There was still time for Hugo to deny Danny Graham and Jan to have a goal disallowed as we climbed back into fifth.
“It was a tough game, but we’re happy at the end and I’m very pleased for the players,” said Mauricio. “It was a good performance, maybe we needed to wait until the end to score and win the game but we were better than Sunderland and in the end it was a fair result.
“We’re all happy because this is one more time that the team has showed character and belief in the 95 minutes and this is a very important thing for us.
“Now we need to focus and to be in good condition for the semi-final on Wednesday.”
We take on Sheffield United in the first leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final at the Lane on Wednesday night.
