Duo Respond To Spurs Loss

James Ward-Prowse and Adam Lallana have both given their thoughts following the loss to Tottenham Hotspur last weekend.

Both players were interviewed by saintsfc and I’ll start with JWP.

As you’d expect the young midfielder talked of his disappointment at how we let not only the victory and all three points slip, but also even a share of the spoils come the full time whistle.

The major disappointment comes of course from how we performed in the first half, compared to our performance in the second.

‘We had a game plan to exploit their high defensive line and put balls over the top. We did that and that’s how our two goals came. We had confidence and we proved too much for them. There was a really good feeling amongst the team. We were really pleased with that but we were really disappointed with the way we performed in the second half as we let the two goal lead slip.’

As well as admitting our failings over the second 45 minutes, Ward-Prowse also gave credit for the way that Spurs improved their own showing because they did come out positively and went for it ‘they really fought for it’ but even then, he knows we could’ve and should’ve handled them in a far better way than we did as we effectively stopped doing what had made us successful to begin with.

Hopefully for the youngster we will get back on track in the Newcastle game and he knows the fans will be key to that with how they support the boys at home, as he still has one eye on European qualification if we can manage it this season.

As for Adam Lallana the message was pretty similar from him as it pertained to the game and the mixtures in halves, but he was more focused on not letting our hard work go to waste by letting the Spurs result hit us too hard, or effectively derailing what we hope to achieve between now and the end of the campaign.

‘We’re massively disappointed. We start well, the whole team were on the front foot and we could’ve had maybe another one or two goals. But we took our foot off the pedal and maybe that shows our naivety at this level and we were punished.’

With what has been possibly a better season than many imagined given our position in the league, it is easy to forget we are a young team still adjusting to this level, so it’s a good point he makes about it effectively being a learning curve.

Yes the argument is you learn those lessons at other levels and as you grow and develop as a player, but sometimes you can get away with it lower down the leagues.

With that said though, he concedes following the loss that a top six push and European qualification is now difficult to achieve, but that doesn’t mean the players won’t be doing all they can to still achieve it.

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