Disappointment in final home game - match report and debrief

Our final home game of the season ended in disappointment as Aston Villa came from behind to take the points on Wednesday evening.

In front of our biggest crowd for 15 months – with 10,000 fans allowed in following the easing of some COVID-19 regulations – Steven Bergwijn gave us the lead but Villa got back into it through a Sergio Reguilon own goal before Ollie Watkins scored what proved to be the winner.

It means we go into our final game of the season at Leicester City on Sunday still unsure of our final position, but unable to finish any higher than sixth in the Premier League table.

We went in front after just eight minutes as Bergwijn was quick as a flash to steal the ball after a heavy touch from Marvelous Nakamba 35 yards from goal, the Dutch forward breaking to the edge of the area and hammering past Emiliano Martinez for his first goal of the season.

The visitors were level 12 minutes later in fortunate circumstances, Reguilon slicing Nakamba’s cross past Hugo Lloris from 15 yards and they took the lead seven minutes before the break when Reguilon’s attempted pass out from the left-back position was blocked by Bertrand Traore to Watkins, who broke into the area, held off Eric Dier and slotted past Lloris.

Villa finished the half the stronger of the two teams, Anwar El Ghazi curling wide before Watkins’ effort was well saved at his near post by Lloris, both chances coming after we were robbed of possession deep in our half by John McGinn.

We were brighter in the early stages of the second period, Martinez twice denying Bergwijn from good opportunities but Villa were resolute at the back and our next chance didn’t come until 15 minutes from time, substitute Gareth Bale setting up Harry Kane who beat Tyrone Mings twice but not Martinez. At the other end, Dier did well to block Watkins from adding a third at the end of a Villa counter-attack.

There was late pressure on the Villa goal, but it wasn’t quite sustained enough to create that one chance to level the scores, Bale firing over after some neat skill on the edge of the area the closest we came. Instead, it was the visitors with the last chance, substitute Carney Chukwuemeka striking the post deep into stoppage time.

Tough end to tough season

After Sunday’s good win against Wolves, we were hoping to end the campaign with another couple of wins to round off 2020/21 but Villa had other ideas.

We made a great start to the game and Bergwijn’s superb goal was just reward for the bright opening. Unfortunately though, we lost our way after the goal and Villa came back strong. Their equaliser came about in bizarre circumstances as there was no danger at all when Nakamba’s cross went straight to Reguilon, but he just mistimed his volley and sliced the ball into the back of his own net. And when Reguilon’s blocked pass landed at the feet of Watkins on 39 minutes, he snapped up the opportunity to fire Villa ahead.

We were struggling to find much rhythm to our play at that stage and the half ended with two good Villa chances as we were twice caught in possession deep inside our own half. First Winks lost out to McGinn which led to El Ghazi curling well wide before the midfielder robbed Dier of the ball and Watkins’ effort was well saved at his near post by Lloris.

Just two minutes after the break, Martinez kept out Bergwijn’s shot after a scramble in the area and Dele Alli’s effort was headed away by Tyrone Mings as we searched for an early equaliser, Bergwijn again testing the Villa goalkeeper moments later after a great break from Kane, but Martinez came out on top again.

Villa were always a danger on the counter and went close when Bertrand Traore curled a yard wide before Dier prevented Watkins from adding to his tally. A disappointing evening was compounded when Japhet Tanganga was carried off on a stretcher looking in some discomfort, to be replaced by Matt Doherty.

Milestone men

The match was Kane’s 400th appearance in club football in all competitions – 335 of them coming in our colours. His other appearances came during loan spells at Leyton Orient (18), Millwall (27), Norwich City (5) and Leicester City (15). He’s scored 236 goals in that time.

Bergwijn’s first goal of the season came on his 50th appearance for us since joining us from PSV Eindhoven in January, 2020.

Our team news saw Ryan Mason make two changes from Sunday’s 2-0 win over Wolves with Harry Winks coming in for Giovani Lo Celso and Bergwijn coming in for Bale.

'Unfortunate situations'

Interim Head Coach Ryan told Spurs TV: "We started brightly, scored a very good goal, felt in full control of the match, no issues, but an unfortunate situation has given them a goal and that changes the momentum, changes the feeling. To then have another unfortunate situation and give them another goal is tough to take. We gave a solid team two goals and in a Premier League match, you cannot do that. It’s hard to create chances, both teams only had four efforts on target, and we’ve given them two goals. It’s disappointing how the game panned out."

Match data

Goals: Spurs – Bergwijn 8; Aston Villa – Reguilon (OG) 20, Watkins 39.

Yellow cards: Spurs – Hojbjerg; Villa – McGinn.

Referee: Craig Pawson.

Venue: Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Attendance: 10,000.

Weather: Clear skies, gentle breeze, 15 degrees.