Spurs had the chance to put things right against Championship opposition, but with only a few minutes left on the clock, they were heading out and facing more misery.
But then Djed Spence and the under-fire Brennan Johnson scored to save the London club’s blushes and book their ticket to the next round.
Tottenham know they aren’t winning the Premier League title, but the League Cup, FA Cup and Europa League are competitions their fans are hoping they can win.
Realistically, the League Cup is the most likely one, followed by the FA Cup and then a European trophy.
But, for that to happen, Postecoglou’s all-action Tottenham side need to know how to put the ball in the back of the net.
That’s why Spurs paid a club-record transfer for Dominic Solanke, but injury and no goal to his name after three games, have made things frustrating for the player.
O’Hara thinks that Solanke needs to look at himself and see what more he can do after his side failed to have a shot at goal in the first half.
But Jason Cundy defended the 27-year-old and argued ‘he’s come back from injury’ and ‘you have to cut him some slack’, as he told talkSPORT.
Dominic Solanke is yet to score for Tottenham
“Solanke comes off after 60 minutes again, that’s got to be a talking point,” said O’Hara. “It’s not happening.” Cundy responded: “He needed minutes. That’s probably enough for him. In terms of his performance, nobody played well for Spurs.”
O’Hara argued: “Come on, for £60 million. I know price tags mean nothing. Like, come on. You have to make something happen for yourself. If you are staying on a football pitch for 60 minutes and you don’t have a shot. Surely, you have to look at yourself and go ‘I have got to do more’. I would be demanding the ball anywhere and having a shot from somewhere. He’s a striker and you haven’t had a shot.”
Cundy then pleaded: “He’s come back from an injury, Solanke. I am no defender of Spurs. You have got to cut him a little bit of slack. He has only just got there”. O’Hara added: “I get that. But, come on, we need a bit more from him.”
Dominic Solanke isn’t the problem
The service Solanke got in the north London derby was poor and that continued against Coventry, before that lucky ending.
Even Postecoglou knows that his side didn’t deserve to progress, but perhaps this is the luck and spark that they needed.
They have a tricky home tie against Brentford at the weekend, before their European adventure begins next week.
There are plenty of games to go around for Solanke to get off the mark and you fear if he still has a big fat zero to his name by next month, then things could really go wrong
A poor start to the season almost turned disastrous for Tottenham Hotspur last night.
Ange Postecoglou’s side travelled to Championship team Coventry City in the Third Round of the League Cup, and instead of playing a full-strength team, the manager opted to play a considerable number of second-string players, which nearly cost his team the game.
The hosts took the lead midway through the first half, only for two late goals to secure a win that even the staunchest of Spurs fans would struggle to say was deserved.
However, the important thing is that the North Londoners are still in the competition, and at least two players made a good case for their inclusion going forward. At the same time, one starter who took fewer touches than Fraser Forster certainly didn’t.
The equaliser was scored by Spurs’ forgotten man, Djed Spence, who came on at the start of the second half to replace Destiny Udogie, and while his goal is the stand-out moment from his 45 minutes of action, he did more than that.
In fact, football.london’s Alasdair Gold awarded him an 8/10 on the night, writing that alongside the goal, for which he showed ‘real desire to run through and prod the ball home’, he also ‘made a good interception in his own box’ that kept the score 1-0 earlier on in the game.
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