Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou admitted his side had to work hard for their 4-1 victory over the Blues at Portman Road.

The North Londoners continued their recent revival and have now won three on the trot in the Premier League, climbing to 12th in the table.

“We had to work hard today, we knew we’d have to work hard. Ipswich are one of the hardest-working teams in the league, they’re fighting for every point,” the Australian said.

“They started the game really well in the first five minutes with the energy in the stadium but I thought we did the hard things really well.

“A couple of times in the first half we lost a bit of concentration and some of our second ball and duels and it was a poor goal we conceded, but aside from that I thought we handled that side of the game really well, which you have to.

“I always felt we were a threat when we had the ball. I thought Sonny [Son Heung-min] was unplayable in the first half and it was so good to get Brennan [Johnson] back in those areas where he’s always a threat. I think all four of our goals were quality goals.

“We had to work hard for it but the fruits of our labour was that our front third play was super-exciting and clinical.”

Postecoglou had praise for 18-year-old defender Archie Gray, who was bullied by Blues striker Liam Delap in the early stages but ultimately played a part in the visitors’ backline preventing Town’s top scorer from adding to his 10 goals.

“We know he’s playing out of position [at right centre-half rather than right-back], we know we’re throwing him challenges and Delap’s a handful for anybody in this league, and in the first few minutes he caused him some problems.

“But I love that Arch takes on that challenge and doesn’t shy away from it, he doesn’t hide, he keeps going and we’ll get enormous growth out of him during this period. But right now he’s contributing to us, he’s helping us.

“We had to do some defensive work today, not a lot but the defensive work we had to do was important against a real top striker and I thought he handled him well.”

TWTD

Daniel72 added 23:45 - Feb 22 No one has commented yet but it sounds a fair assessment... five points isn't so much it is still possible to stay in this ridiculous league
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SpiritOfJohn added 07:37 - Feb 23 A reasonable summary, but he forgot to mention that Gray got a lot of help from the ref. Once the Spurs defenders realised they were guaranteed a free-kick if they hit the deck they were able to gain the upper hand, after a torrid first 15 minutes.
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blueboy1981 added 18:19 - Feb 23 NOT ! - he’s having a Laugh !
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ImAbeliever added 14:27 - Feb 24 I believe.
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