Back to winning ways against Seagulls - report and reaction

A record-breaking goal from Harry Kane helped us on our way to an important victory on Wednesday evening as we overcame Brighton & Hove Albion at the Amex Stadium.

After Cristian Romero had opened his account for us with a fortunate goal in the first half, our England forward doubled our lead shortly before the hour mark with a milestone goal – becoming the Premier League’s all-time record goalscorer in away games with his 95th goal, overtaking Wayne Rooney in the process.

It was a relatively comfortable night’s work for us as we restricted Brighton in attack and they failed to manage a shot on target throughout the 90 minutes. Romero gave us the lead on 37 minutes when Dejan Kulusevski’s effort flicked off his shin and crept in before Kane’s clinical finish from Rodrigo Bentancur’s pass sealed the points.

Coasting on the coast

While our form going into this game was somewhat erratic, Brighton had lost their previous five league matches and scored just one goal, so we headed to the south coast looking to pile on the misery for the Seagulls. And fortunately the game panned out just as we had hoped, with the home side struggling in front of goal while we took full advantage with a strike in either half to take three big points back to north London. However, the fact that Hugo Lloris didn’t have a save to make was as much to do with some fine defending in front of him as it was Brighton’s lack of an attacking threat.

Kane almost wrote himself into the record books as early as the fifth minute when he blocked Robert Sanchez’s attempted clearance with the ball squirting out to the left but the striker couldn’t squeeze it home. The angle was tight, but he will feel he should have scored.

It was a fairly subdued first half in truth, most of the action taking place in the middle two thirds of the pitch and neither side managed a shot on target until we broke the deadlock in the 37th minute. Our build up play was patient, moving the ball out wide left to Sergio Reguilon who fed Heung-Min Son inside, he skipped past a challenge and laid off for Kulusevski whose first-time shot flicked off the leg of Romero and rolled in at the near post.

Five minutes later it could have been 2-0, Shane Duffy heading a long ball straight against Kulusevski who was immediately in on goal with just Sanchez to beat but the keeper denied him with his outstretched leg.

Brighton enjoyed a bright start to the second period with some sustained pressure, but again they didn’t force Lloris into a save. If anything, it played into our hands as our second goal came from a lightning-swift counter-attack. Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg broke up play just outside our area and slipped a pass to Bentancur, who surged forwards and released Kane away on goal. For some reason, Sanchez didn’t come out to clear which allowed Kane to latch onto the ball and then provide a clinical left-foot finish for his history-making strike.

The home side tried to respond in the closing stages and enjoyed plenty of the ball, but we were resolute at the back and were happy to play on the counter. Kane played two sensational passes to twice release Reguilon down the left but he was denied by good saves from Sanchez on each occasion, while the keeper also made a smart diving stop to prevent Kane from adding a third.

Kane’s away day delight

Having drawn level with Wayne Rooney on 94 Premier League away goals with his penalty at Old Trafford on Saturday, it was only a matter of time before Kane set the record. His 95th in this match came in just 139 games and he surpasses Rooney in an incredible 104 less matches.

Kulusevski’s assist for our opening goal means the Swedish international has now been directly involved in six goals in his last six Premier League games for us – two goals and four assists.

Team news saw Antonio Conte name the same starting XI and substitutes’ bench from Saturday's 3-2 loss at Old Trafford.

Reaction on Spurs TV

'We played with personality'

Antonio told Spurs TV: "From the start we were very good, we played with personality and showed from the start we wanted to get the three points. We are improving a lot. I said this to the players this week, we’re having good performances, and in the last period sometimes the final result wasn’t positive, but the performance... For example, in the last game against United, I thought we deserved more than to lose the game. We had to get these three points, very important for our ambition, our target. It's right to have a target, to try to reach fourth is very difficult, the level of difficulty is very high, but at the same time it’s right to have the ambition, for the players to have a target and also to improve, to improve our play, to score goals, to create chances, also to make our fans proud of their team."

Highlights on Spurs TV

Match data

Goals: Spurs – Romero 37, Kane 57.

Yellow cards: Brighton – Maupay, Veltman; Spurs – Reguilon, Romero.

Referee: Rob Jones.

Venue: Amex Stadium.

Weather: Partly cloudy, moderate breeze, light rain, nine degrees.

Attendance: 31,144.