Cup exit tough for 'phenomenal' Skippy

Described as ‘phenomenal’ by Jose Mourinho, personal accolades were of little consolation to Oliver Skipp after last night’s FA Cup loss against Norwich City.

We bowed out on penalties after the fifth-round tie finished 1-1 after extra time at the new stadium.

“It’s always nice to be complimented, that's a positive for me, but I’d rather be in a winning performance,” said the young midfielder. “It’s nice what he said, but we’re so disappointed with the result. It’s devastating to go out on penalties, the harshest way in football to lose after 120 minutes, a tough game, so really disappointed with that.”

‘Skippy’ was back in the starting line-up for the first time since September, and the first time under Jose, his 19th appearance in a Spurs shirt at the age of 19.

“I’ve been working hard to hopefully get the opportunity, so I was ready to take it when it came,” added the Academy graduate from Welwyn Garden City. “As I said, I wanted it to be in a winning performance, that’s more important than any individual. It’s a team sport and we all just wanted to get into the next round.”

Jan Vertonghen headed us into the lead on 13 minutes and with further chances, we were good value for that lead at half-time. Norwich pushed on in the second half and levelled through Josip Drmic 12 minutes from time. That prompted a late push - Serge Aurier’s effort somehow cleared off the line - but it stayed 1-1 and Norwich took the shoot-out 3-2 to progress to the quarter-finals.

“It was an unbelievable clearance off the line from Serge, we had a couple of shots blocked, everything seemed to be blocked...it wasn’t to be,” added Skippy.