Eight minutes of excellence brought Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham Hotspur an unlikely 3-2 win against Brentford FC, but the coach wasn't all smiles.
Neal Maupay's goal in the 15th minute triggered a cheeky celebration when the French striker threw imaginary darts.
That, it seemed, was in a bid to goad Spurs star James Maddison whose usual goal celebration is to throw darts.
READ MORE: Marsh's amazing speech after icing epic resurgence
READ MORE: 'Devastated' icon reacts to brutal Formula 1 snub
READ MORE: Top PGA Tour players land $2.3b equity deal
Maddison later confronted Maupay at the halfway line, none too happy with his opponent's cheeky act.
"I just said to him he probably hasn't scored enough goals of his own over the last few years to have his own celebration so he probably had to copy mine," Maddison said, laughing.
Asked whether the initial Maupay celebration had "fired up" the team, Postecoglou said, "I hope not because that's exactly what I'm talking about.
"I'm not a fan of it, I don't like the whole bravado, pushing people around.
"If you're that brave about things, my players and their players, get into a UFC cage and I'll see how brave they are.
"We're out there to play football. And that's what I want our guys to do, focus on playing football.
"And they shouldn't get motivated by things that aren't really that important to us. Like I said, we got sucked in first half. Second half was much better."
Early into the second half, Spurs broke through with three goals in quick successions courtesy of Destiny Udogie in the 48th, Brennan Johnson in the 49th and Richarlison in the 56th.
Johnson's goal, which took Spurs into the lead at the time at 2-1, prompted the striker to do his own darts celebration to take the mickey out of Maupay.
For it, Postecoglou gave his men a clip for losing focus.
Postecoglou said he was disappointed with how his men started the match but hailed their comeback after the rev-up.
"They scored and we lost our way," said Postecoglou.
"We just lost focus. I was a bit frustrated with our inability to stay disciplined and it was just too many stops, starts. It plays into their hands.
"We spent time talking to the referee than playing. I was a bit frustrated we lost our clear focus.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C2yA-eKNcGs/?hl=en&img_index=1
"The second half for 25, 30 minutes we were outstanding. We scored three goals and probably should have had a couple more and then we gave a goal away and that gives them a little bit of impetus in the game.
"Then it was a lot of stop, free kicks, throw-ins, which we had to deal with and I thought for the large part we dealt with okay. In the end, from our perspective, great character from the lads shown to get a win."
Brentford scored a late consolation goal to draw the ledger back to 3-2.
Tottenham have moved into fourth on the ladder ahead of Aston Villa thanks to goals scored.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.