George Burley praised his side after yesterday's fine 2-1 victory away at Spurs. The Town manager failed to make any significant comment on the sending off of Teddy Sheringham as he didn't see the incident clearly.

Of the performance Burley said: "We've not played badly at all this season but today we had all the determination and desire to outpass a quality side like Tottenham. We've proved we are still a very good side and confidence is still high. History is against us because records show that teams at the bottom at Christmas always go down but we're out to prove ourselves the exception. It's a great result and will put us in good heart for the next two home games against Leicester and Sunderland. We'll focus everything on those matches now."

His opposing number Glenn Hoddle said his side failed to start playing until after Sheringham's sending off: "We just didn't get our game together in the first half but from being down to 10 men I thought we were magnificent and deserved to win the game. But perhaps the worst thing that could have happened in hindsight, was taking an early lead, It gave us a false sense of security and suggested to the fans that it was our day. If it had been 0-0 at half-time I'm convinced we would have gone on to win but we played it too long and too early in the first half. We addressed that in the second half and did much better but things just didn't break for us. Ipswich came back and surprised us with the winner but we knew they are much better than their league position. I warned the players about
that. We've had a big setback but every time that has happened this season we've bounced straight back with a win and hopefully we can do that again, but it just shows we still have a lot of work to do."

Hoddle wasn't pleased with Sheringham's red card and has asked referee Mike Riley to look at it again: "He has agreed and that is fair enough. We'll take it from there. It wasn't a punch, it
was a push. Teddy had his shirt pulled for about 30 seconds and just pushed the player in the face to get him away. Anybody would do the same but it is about time shirt-pulling was dealt with as a sending-off offence. If people are holding you back like that it is natural you are going to do something to try to get them away. I saw what happened and it was quite clear. It would be completely out of character for Teddy to punch anybody. I don't know if it is his first sending-off but there cannot have been many."

Sheringham's last red card was for Millwall in 1989. Hoddle added that if Riley decided not to overturn the desicion then they would appeal to the FA.

Photo: Action Images

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