Spurs manager Andres Villas-Boas has said that the support during the game at White Hart Lane yesterday felt as if his team were playing away from home during their 1-0 win over Hull City.
Despite being frustrated for long periods of time a Roberto Soldado penalty was enough to see the Lilywhites move into fourth place in the Premiership behind Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool.
“We looked like the away team. We played in a difficult atmosphere with almost no support,” said Villas-Boas.
“We have a wonderful set of fans but they can do better. We don’t need the negativity of today.”
So far this season Spurs have won three out of five games at home while at the same time winning three out of four games on the road.
AVB when talking to BBC Sport said: “Away from home their support has been amazing; we play with no fear and we need that atmosphere at White Hart Lane.
“We didn’t have the support we should have done. There was much anxiety from the stands, the players had to do it alone.
“We spoke about it at half-time. I told the players that we would have to do it on our own. They had to dig deep and look for the strength within themselves. They also believed that it’s not easy to play in this stadium when the atmosphere is like this.”
Hulls game plan was to frustrate Spurs playing with a five-man defence seemingly being quite content to play for a draw, or on the break score a fluke winner, but after Hull’s Ahmed Elmohamady was judged to have used his arm to block Jan Vertonhen’s cross the resulting penalty was just enough to give Tottenham the victory.
“It was never going to be easy against a team that defended their goal so well,” said former Chelsea boss Villas-Boas. “Their objective was to prevent us from scoring that first goal and it was a strategy that almost worked for them.
“The difference today is that we were patient. I compliment the boys for what they did, it was a great work-rate.
