Ange Postecoglou must ask brutal questions after super Tamworth take Tottenham to extra time

Steven Chicken
Ange Postecoglou cuts a frustrated figure in the dugout at Tamworth
Ange Postecoglou started the game in good spirits but looked more and more embarrassed as the game went on

There could be no better scene setter for a non-league vs Premier League FA Cup clash. Just 65 seconds passed between Beck-Ray Enoru sitting on the shoulders of teammate Jordan Cullinane-Liburd with a roll of plumber’s tape to mend a dangling goal net that delayed kick off, and Enoru testing Tottenham’s £12.5m goalkeeper with a shot to the top corner after blazing past a £39m right-back and a £26.7m defender.

Very obviously, against the second-highest scorers in the Premier League, this was obviously always going to be a containment job first and foremost. Yet as far as chances to win the game went, Tamworth looked just as likely to get the job done in 90 minutes as their high-profile visitors.

The team of part-timers sitting 16th in the National League did a far better job than any realistic expectations allowed, even after their similarly impressive showings in knocking out League One Huddersfield and Burton to get here.

Tamworth obviously deserve the most enormous of credits for getting here,  holding the game goalless for the entire 90 minutes and into extra time before finally going behind to a scrappy Nathan Tshikuna own goal. Dejan Kulusevski and Brennan Johnson’s goals in the second period of extra time  clawed back some slight dignity for Spurs in the scoreline, but…

We must stress that any and all criticism of Tottenham is secondary to that in the grander scheme, and there are not enough words of praise that can be sent Tamworth’s way.

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That Haydn Hollis roulette to spin past Pape Sarr from centre-back will go down in cult history alongside Tom Tonks’ vaunted long throws. The lowly hosts went close from several set pieces, and went incredibly close to a 96th minute winner. At times, Tamworth made Spurs look like absolute chumps. We can’t stress enough that it was absolutely joyous to watch. We’ve not laughed at a game so much for ages.

But this website, for better or worse, has its concentration firmly on the Premier League sides, and looking at it from a Tottenham perspective…Tamworth made Spurs look like absolute chumps at times, and it will have been awful to watch.

Chris Maxwell’s blunder for Huddersfield as he punched Tonk’s throw into his own net was severe enough that the goalkeeper was downgraded from second choice to third; he has not played for the club since. The left-back who started that game, Jaheim Headley, never started for the club again and was sold to League Two Port Vale at the first opportunity, the final straw having been reached.

Terriers head coach Michael Duff has said on more than one occasion they will never stop apologising for that 1-0 defeat at Tamworth. When the second round weekend rolled around, Duff made clear his side would not be getting a weekend off, because they deserved no reward for having lost to a side as lowly as Tamworth.

If that’s the reaction a League One side had, you can only begin to imagine where the recriminations must begin and end in Ange Postecoglou’s mind after so many of his players fell short of expectations on the same ground.

It took Tottenham over an hour to reach double figures for shots. Two of their efforts in the 90 minutes were extremely presentable one-v-ones from inside the box; James Maddison and Timo Werner failed to put them away. If anybody looked like they spent most of the week working for Zara, it was Werner.

This was not a team full of kids; no more so than usual for Tottenham, anyway. Postecoglou’s selection was, for the most part, the players Spurs are counting on to try and get them Champions League football. The very idea seems laughable, watching this, and it’s far from the first time this season.

If it weren’t already clear that Tottenham need to improve this squad – and it was – then it is absolutely, abundantly so now. For Postecoglou, all the credit he got for his side’s midweek League Cup semi-final first leg victory over Liverpool has now been cancelled out just as quickly as it was earned.

Postecoglou was able to find the good spirits to laugh off the fans’ jeers at his obvious frustration at that delayed start to proceedings, taking a big pantomime deep calming breath. He will have not have found much of what followed nearly as easy to smile about.

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