Tottenham Hotspur interim head coach Ryan Mason believes that his players showed "big character" to come back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with Manchester United on Thursday.
The two top-four challengers went into the Premier League contest on the back of vastly differing fortunes, as the Lilywhites were reeling from their 6-1 loss to Newcastle United while the Red Devils were on a high from reaching the FA Cup final.
Mason, who had only had a few days to get to grips with his group as head coach after Cristian Stellini's sacking, oversaw a dreadful first half in North London, as Man United took a 2-0 lead into half time.
A toxic atmosphere befell the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, where unpopular chairman Daniel Levy was in attendance to listen to protests against his ownership, but Mason's half-time team talk went down a treat.
Spurs valiantly fought back to come away with a point in a four-goal stalemate, and Mason was delighted to witness his side display a sense of character that had been lacking prior to the midweek contest.
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"Big character, big personalities, stuck together, kept believing and acted as a team throughout the whole game. That pleases me after what happened at the weekend because we probably didn't have that as a group," football.london quotes Mason as saying in his post-game press conference.
"And off the back of how the first half went in terms of the scoreline, to go out at half time and stick together, fight for each other and really got our fans involved, I thought they helped us massively, and it's pleasing. It proves a lot to me what I already thought about this group but to see that on the pitch is a good feeling."
Man United needed just seven minutes to open the scoring in North London, as Jadon Sancho cut inside and fired a stunning effort into the bottom corner, before Marcus Rashford went from provider to goalscorer with an arrowed strike into the roof of the net just before the break.
Boos rang out around the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after a timid first-half performance, but the hosts cut the deficit in half with 56 minutes gone thanks to a sumptuous half-volley from Pedro Porro.
Bruno Fernandes and Eric Dier subsequently missed gilt-edged chances to make the net ripple again, but in the 79th minute, Harry Kane and Son Heung-min's lethal partnership came to the fore, as the England captain picked out his teammate to scuff home the equaliser.
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Had Tottenham been able to breach the Red Devils' backline earlier, Mason believes that his side could have come away from the contest with all three points, but he nevertheless labelled the 2-2 draw as a "positive" after his side's torrid start to the match.
"Yeah, we created many chances. I thought in the first half we created a couple as well and maybe if we were a bit more clinical then the flow of the game would have been different," Mason added.
"The second half we kept pushing, had some real clear openings and maybe if we got the second goal earlier we could have kept pushing.
"I felt once we had got the second goal the lads had sort of invested so much energy into it that we went a little bit flat and they took a little bit control of the game without really creating anything. To come off 2-2 off the back of going in 2-0 down at half-time is a positive."
Despite their praiseworthy efforts on Thursday, fifth-placed Tottenham remain rank outsiders for Champions League qualification, sitting six points behind Man United having played two games more.
Next up for the Lilywhites is a daunting trip to Anfield to take on Liverpool, who sit just one point and two places behind Tottenham with a match in hand.
Ben Knapton
