Deep frustration for Postecoglou after spirited Ipswich sink unconvincing Spurs

Tottenham Hotspur 1 Ipswich Town 2

The blizzard of booing at the end of a desperately frustrating afternoon for Tottenham said it all.

Unhappy Spurs fans voiced their displeasure at the surprise 2-1 defeat at home to struggling Ipswich Town. Was this too much to bear for most of the north London audience - or simply one of those days?

Ange Postecoglou feels it is the latter. although you suspect a certain degree of anger is crossing the mind of the Spurs boss.

A clash which, for all Tottenham's attempts to drag themselves back to life after going a couple of goals down - courtesy of Tractor Boys' Sammie Szmodics' bicycle kick in 31 minutes and another from Liam Delap three minutes before half time - lacked real conviction.

Encamped in the visitors' half for almost the entire second half, with a more urgent tempo, of the sort which was lacking earlier, chances went astray, crosses were wildly inaccurate, all building a picture of deep disappointment for Spurs supporters who expected another heroic comeback from the depths. Nevertheless, there was to be no recovery of the sort displayed a week ago when Aston Villa were eventually defeated 4-1.

It took until the 69th minute for the hosts to reply when Rodrigo Bentancur headed home powerfully from a Pedro Porro corner. It seemed then that Kieran McKenna's side would inevitably wilt under the storm of pressure. However, too much of that actual force from a Tottenham perspective was anxiety-ridden. Even substitute Timo Werner, seemingly fresh in both body and mind, passed on opportunities.

Concentration

As Ipswich huddled together, concentration levels exact, the elusive leveller, never mind a winner, failed to materialise.

Perhaps the journey and logistics of returning from Istanbul for some players, were a factor. Mentally jaded ahead of a game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium which had routine league win written all over it.

Jeers greeted the half time whistle. Ipswich, without a league win this season, were two goals ahead - this was not in the assumed Spurs' script by any estimation.

Yet, it could be easily argued that the East Anglian outfit deserved their victory. Terrific individual performances from the likes of Delap and Omari Hutchinson - the latter so instrumental in setting up Town's second goal - were obvious to both McKenna and the raucous travelling fans, who thoroughly enjoyed this brazen Sunday in north London.

Fortunately, the international break will give Tottenham's players and, certainly, Postecoglou valuable time to reflect. How to be more clinical on front of goal. How to address skittish first half displays. Helping Heung-Min Son rediscover a scoring touch. All issues to ponder for the Greek-Australian, who now looks at his side sitting in tenth place, while enduring some criticism from sections of the Spurs support of late.

Postecoglou has always been a particularly demanding coach - and this display certainly drew his ire.

"We didn't start the game well at all", he admitted.

"It was all sort of passive, without the ball, with the ball. I felt we didn't get the tempo right or intensity right and then we gave ourselves a mountain to climb. Second half we were in the ascendancy and had opportunities obviously but we didn't do enough with them."

Disappointment

The Tottenham chief denied that the logistics of returning to London after the 3-2 Europa League loss to Galatasaray contributed to the overall disappointment of losing to an opponent who have now edged out of the Premier League's bottom three with 11 games played.

Postecoglou added: "If we were seeing that (the Thursday-Sunday schedule) we'd probably feel it more at the end of games and we're not feeling it at the end of games. We're finishing games strongly. We can't start games like that at this level and expect to overcome the gap that exists between us and the other teams."

It has to be said that VAR intervened to rule out a Spurs goal, when Dominic Solanke kicked the ball against his own hand before it hit the back of the net, with Ipswich continuing to hold firm and look to break on the rare counter attack.

Fate, then, conspired against Tottenham's hopes of grabbing at least a point. A visit to champions Manchester City follows after the internationals, where Spurs will hope to add to this unexpected mini crisis engulfing Pep Guardiola's side at the moment.

Ultimately, Postecoglou's men are going to have to get into the habit of dealing properly and efficiently with tasks like this. The sheer work rate by Ipswich eclipsed anything Tottenham had to offer.