Tottenham boss Ange Postecoglou has hailed his player’s drive and determination after they dug in to beat Brentford 2-0 away from home.
It broke a streak of four consecutive losses in the Premier League for the North London club, and their first top-flight win in 49 days.
But it was not an easy day at the office, with Spurs having their backs to the wall for most of the game.
They took the lead through a Brentford own goal in the first half, before securing the three points with a few minutes to go thanks to a Pape Matar Sarr strike.
Speaking after the game, Postecoglou said: “It is a difficult place to come and win at.
“It’s also a difficult place to win with the way they attack and set up; you have to defend your box. You’re just going to have to do that.
“I thought the lads handled that awfully well and we knew it was going to be key for us and the lads were brilliant and we felt we had the quality of football to hurt them the other way. Credit to the boys, they were brilliant.”
“We’ll take a lot from the win” 🙌
Ange Postecoglou reacts after a big win for Spurs at Brentford ✅ pic.twitter.com/AMmDDQEMNw
— Sky Sports Premier League (@SkySportsPL) February 2, 2025
Postecoglou made sure to give props to Djed Spence as well – who was outstanding and named Player of the Match.
Playing out of position in the absence of Destiny Udogie at left-back, the young Englishman has been a revelation in Tottenham’s defence.
Postecoglou added: “Since he came into the team he has been outstanding.
“We missed him the last couple of games but that’s the beauty of where we’re at at the moment. We’re slowly getting players back, improving us and helping us and I think that’s giving energy to the group. He was great today, [Bryan] Mbuemo is a handful for any full-back and he handled him really well.”
Archie Gray has been praised in a similar vein and echoed the words of his manager.
With Micky van de Ven being rested ahead the big Carabao Cup tie against Liverpool on Thursday and Cristian Romero still not back, Gray was once again called into action at the back.
The 18-year-old said after the match: “Obviously, it’s a massive win. Off the back of another good win before. To break that run, it was difficult, we were in a difficult time. We’ve still got loads of games to prove that we can carry this winning form on, so it’s important.
“At times this season, just for five minutes we’ve lost concentration. As soon as that goal went in we knew we can’t make the same mistakes. Once we got to half-time we thought we had to keep disciplined for the second half. They play man-to-man, they left people open at the back and we knew we could get a second goal as well.
“It’s a credit to Ben [Davies] and Djed [Spence] and Pedro [Porro] as well. To be fair Ben was shouting at me the whole game and we were shouting at each other the whole game, so that was really good to have him next to me. Like I said, it was a really good clean sheet and hopefully we can keep it going.”