Harry Kane: "Let's take it forward from here"
Mon 18 October 2021, 16:45|
Tottenham Hotspur
Harry Kane said staying calm in the early storm was key to victory at St James’ Park - but his first concern as he spoke post-match was the well being of the supporter who required urgent medical attention towards the end of the first half.
Details are now a bit clearer, with a spokesman for the North East Ambulance confirming to the local newspaper, the Newcastle Chronicle, that a man collapsed and required CPR, but thankfully was ‘alert and responsive’ when he was taken to the RVI Hospital in the city. Newcastle also reported on their official website on Sunday that the supporter was ‘stable and responsive’ in hospital.
Our players received universal praise for their quick response to the situation, particularly Sergio Reguilon, who noticed what was happening early in the East Stand and alerted referee, Andre Marriner, and Eric Dier, who sprinted over to the dugouts signalling for a defibrillator
“First and foremost, we want to send our biggest wishes to the fan in the stand,” Harry told us pitchside after the 3-2 win. “We hear he’s stable now. It was horrible to see, horrible to witness, thankfully the medical staff, the fans and players reacted really quickly. It wasn't nice, we just hope he recovers well, and we wish him all the best.”
The incident happened on 40 minutes. By then, we’d taken control of the game, having initially been swept away on the tide of takeover emotion at St James’ Park. Newcastle were quick out of the traps, flew into tackles and took the lead through Callum Wilson's diving header inside two minutes.
But we got hold of the ball, started picking our passes and 20 minutes after Wilson’s strike, we were 2-1 up thanks to Tanguy Ndombele’s arrowed shot into the top corner and Harry’s sublime finish from Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s pass, initially flagged offside but awarded after a VAR check.
Lucas Moura hit the crossbar and then, after play resumed, Heung-Min Son finished a superb move involving Tanguy, Lucas and Harry for 3-1 by half-time. We had chances to take ourselves out of sight in the second half only for a late own goal to bring a few nerves, but Newcastle didn’t create another chance.
Harry said: “They came out the blocks, scored early and the crowd was rocking. But we didn’t panic and kept the ball. That was most important, keeping possession, make sure we moved the ball, keeping the crowd as quiet as possible. We knew the spaces would then be there to open them up.
“I thought we controlled the game really well, stayed composed, kept possession, created chances and took a couple, and then after the restart, scored another just before half-time. In that first half we were clinical and took our chances. In the second half we controlled the game and there were opportunities there... the final ball, the final pass to be better and we might have got the fourth or the fifth.
“You know in the Premier League, just one chance to the other team, they score, and stoppage time is a bit more nerve wracking than it needed to be. Overall, though, a great away win for us and hopefully we can take it forward from here. We can obviously improve but that’s two good wins on the bounce now in the Premier League and hopefully we can have another next weekend.”
