Spurs 3-0 Leicester U18s - John's verdict

After banishing his injury demons by saving a penalty against Leicester City on Saturday, goalkeeper Harry Voss was among several players singled out for praise by Academy Manager John McDermott following our 3-0 home win in the Barclays Under-18 Premier League.

Voss recently returned to action after suffering a dislocated shoulder when facing a penalty last summer.

But by diving to his left to palm away Kyle Bailey’s spot kick at the weekend, he consigned his woes to the history books and kept his clean sheet intact after a Daniel Akindayini brace and a Connor Ogilvie had seen us take a commanding lead.

“I’m delighted for Harry Voss to save the penalty,” John said, post-match. “The last one he faced was when he was injured in pre-season so to make that save in the same corner was good for him.

“I was really pleased with the way Daniel Akindayini took his goals and I was impressed with Lloyd Ross as well. He came on as a substitute and looked very stylish as a number 10. Anton Walkes also came on and strengthened things up.

“I thought our control of the game through Filip Lesniak and Harry Winks was excellent. They played with maturity beyond their years.”

John also heaped praise on the team for the way they dealt with a swirling wind to emerge with three points.

“I was really pleased with the first half,” he added. “We’ve played in some windy conditions in the last few weeks and I thought that was probably the most difficult.

“To be fair to both teams, they made it a very good game. After a good first half, we had maybe 10 minutes in the second where it was too scruffy but I thought we overcame that.

“It was probably one of the most mature performances we’ve had and there were a lot of very, very good performances in incredibly tough conditions.”