James Maddison sends three-word message to Djed Spence after saving Tottenham
James Maddison has sent a three-word message to Djed Spence after he scored his first Tottenham goal during their 2-1 comeback win over Coventry on Wednesday. Spurs came from behind to beat the Sky Blues and progress through to the Carabao Cup fourth-round for the first time in three years.
Ange Postecoglou had made wholesale changes to his Tottenham XI for the trip to Coventry as he handed opportunities to several youngsters, including summer arrivals Lucas Bergval and Archie Gray, while the likes of Timo Werner, Wilson Odobert and Radu Dragusin were also given chances to impress.
However, it didn't go to plan for the Spurs boss as Coventry took the lead in the 64th minute, with Brandon Thomas-Asante finishing off a slick counter-attacking move.
Just as the Championship outfit thought they were almost there, Tottenham equalised late on as Spence netted his first goal in Tottenham colours. The former Nottingham Forest right-back started the move before getting on the end of Dejan Kulusevski's pass and finishing beyond Ben Wilson.
After the game, Tottenham posted a clip of Spence's goal and Maddison, who came on as a second-half substitute to help Spurs back into the game, couldn't help but congratulate him on his strike. In the comments section, Maddison wrote: "Love it brother @djedspence."
Even though there was only a couple of minutes plus stoppage-time left, it still felt like Tottenham were going to get one last chance to win the game. That opportunity came - and Spurs managed to take it as Brennan Johnson was played through before coolly dinking the ball past Wilson.
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After Johnson deactivated his Instagram account for alleged abusive messages following the north London derby over the weekend, there was a muted celebration from the 23-year-old. Son Heung-min took Johnson over to the travelling Spurs fans after the full-time whistle, but he also didn't look pleased then.
Despite this, Spurs are into the last 16 of the Carabao Cup and Postecoglou was relieved to see his side progress. "We had to hang in there. We had to work really, really hard just to stay in the game and obviously going a goal behind makes it even more challenging," the Aussie said.
"At the end there, we showed some real spirit and character, which is probably what’s been missing in the first four games. We’ve had the performance, but we haven’t had that relentlessness to get a result. You sense that in the last 10 minutes, we got real belief out of that and hopefully that’s a good sign moving forward."
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