Scare puts spotlight on contrast between club and fans over priorities

ANGE POSTECOGLOU has repeatedly insisted he would rather his Tottenham side played their football and showed progress on the pitch than won ugly.

- Dan Kilpatrick

So what could the head coach take from last night’s late show at Coventry, as an abject Spurs scraped into the Carabao Cup fourth-round with two late goals despite one of the limpest performances of the Postecoglou era?

Before substitutes Djed Spence and Brennan Johnson struck, Spurs were heading for a disastrous result, which would have heaped pressure on the Australian and severely dented supporter confidence in his project.

For the first time under Postecoglou, there were signs of mutiny from match-going fans, with some boos from the away end when he hooked Lucas Bergvall moments before Coventry deservedly took the lead. If Spurs had lost, there would have been some ugly reactions.

The hope is that Postecoglou, who made eight changes from Sunday’s north London derby, takes the win and a lesson from the game: heavily-rotated Spurs teams have struggled against supposedly weaker opposition in the cups, and last night not only felt familiar to three of their first four matches of this season but so many historic knockout defeats down the years.