Sun 20 January 2019, 20:07
Tottenham HotspurMauricio Pochettino paid tribute to the never-say-die attitude of the players after we dug deep for a win in the final seconds at Fulham.
Harry Winks headed home the late, late winner as we overcame losing Dele with five minutes left to still find the goal we needed for the three points. Dele had earlier levelled in the second half but limped out of the action with a hamstring injury.
As the seconds ticked away, Dele’s replacement GK Nkoudou crossed for ‘Winksy’ to score, sparking jubilant scenes in front of our travelling fans at Craven Cottage.
“I think it’s amazing, the fight until the end, the belief was amazing and I’m so pleased, three very important points for us,” said Mauricio. “To score in the final 15 seconds, the adrenaline was amazing, we enjoyed that a lot.”
We kicked-off without our three top goalscorers – Harry Kane (ankle), Heung-Min Son (international duty) and Lucas Moura (knee) – and that prompted a reshuffle with Mauricio opting for a 3-4-2-1 system with Fernando Llorente up front.
Fernando unluckily turned a corner into his own net as Fulham came at us in the first half. Hugo Lloris did well to keep out Ryan Babel and Aleksandar Mitrovic had a goal disallowed for offside.
Trailing 1-0 at the break, Dele levelled on 51 minutes before Winksy’s grandstand finish.
“It shows the character and the personality of the team,” added Mauricio. “We have a lot of quality but in a stadium like Fulham’s, who are playing for survival, it’s always difficult.
“We kept our identity with different names playing in a different formation, it’s an amazing thing that happened and that’s why I’m so pleased.”
