Spurs avoid FA Cup shock after non-League Tamworth take them to the brink

Tottenham narrowly avoided FA Cup embarrassment against non-league Tamworth as they needed extra-time before securing a 3-0 win in the third round on Sunday.

Ange Postecoglou’s side, currently 12th in the Premier League, are 96 places above Tamworth, who sit 16th in the fifth tier National League.

But the supposed gap in quality was rarely apparent as Tottenham’s dismal display took them to the brink of a historic humiliation.

Tamworth should have caused one of the FA Cup’s greatest upsets in normal time but their missed chances proved crucial.
Nathan Tshikuna’s extra-time own goal and late strikes from Dejan Kulusevski and Brennan Johnson sent Tottenham into the fourth round.

Tottenham last won a major trophy in 2008, but the under-fire Postecoglou boasts he always wins silverware in his second season at a club.

Having beaten Liverpool 1-0 in the League Cup semi-final first leg on Wednesday, Tottenham remain in contention for a domestic cup double.
But they will have to improve significantly on the latest underwhelming performance in their troubled campaign.

Tamworth are a part-time team whose players work day jobs alongside their football careers and only train twice as week.

Yet they matched their highly-paid and supposedly superior opponents for long periods of a classic FA Cup tie at the Lamb Ground.

It was something of a culture shock for Tottenham to swap the plush arenas of the Premier League for Tamworth’s modest 4,000-capacity stadium with a sloping artificial pitch.

Fans waved tinfoil replicas of the FA Cup, while locals who didn’t buy a ticket were able to peer over the garden walls of houses that backed onto the stadium.

The ramshackle vibe was summed up when kick-off was delayed by a hole in one of the goal nets,