Fernando Llorente's hat-trick complemented Serge Aurier brace, with goals from Son Heung-min and substitute Harry Kane completing the rout.

"We all enjoy playing together, we all want to play the same way and we know the philosophy we have here," Alli, Spurs' captain for the evening, said.

"We all want to get the ball up high, move it quickly, interchange and make it difficult for the other team. We did that.

"We're all happy for Fernando because he works so hard, he came in, took his chance and scored a hat-trick – he couldn't do more."

Llorente was one of eight alterations made by Pochettino at Prenton Park and justified his inclusion with a quickfire treble.

Aurier was another brought in for the match, but few expected him to have a goalscoring impact – never mind net two.

The right-back opened the scoring in spectacular fashion with the only goal of a tense first half, before turning home a cross as 299-day wait for a goal ended in style.

"To be honest, when he lined-up for it I was a bit like 'oh no, not Serge – don't hit!" Alli told Spurs TV.

"But he's a fantastic player and he's got great quality.

"He's hit and miss with those long strikes but it came off and we're thankful because they made it very difficult for us and sometimes it takes quality like that to change the game and to turn it around.

"We did that, and I think second half it was obviously a positive performance."

While Tottenham look to build on that display in Tuesday's Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Chelsea, Tranmere return to League Two action at Cheltenham next weekend.

Micky Mellon's side sit ninth in the standings after making an impressive return from a spell in non-league, with the Rovers boss now looking to push on up to the play-offs.

"If you're going to compete with these kinds of teams, there's a whole host of things I could say that 'we've got to get better at that', 'we've got to get better at that'," Mellon said.

"I think we all know that, but the important thing is now we move it as momentum moving forwards as a football club because it's only one game in isolation.

"We've come an awful, awful long way and to get games like this was part of the game plan, if you like, to keep moving the club forwards.

"So, we'll use it as that, we'll have a weekend off now because we've had a tough period but back in Monday and away we go again."

ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'});
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Simon Peach, Press Association Chief Football Writer');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', 'df5df80d-7e1f-4308-9e1c-a655233ac245');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:sport,paservice:sport:club-news,paservice:sport:football,paservice:sport:uk');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite');
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null);
ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', 'sport:football');
ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Alli: Tottenham are enjoying playing together'});