Tottenham endured the humiliation of being taken to extra time by Tamworth, an opponent nearly 100 places lower in English soccer’s pyramid, before winning 3-0 and avoiding one of the biggest shocks in FA Cup history on Sunday.
Four days after beating Premier League leader Liverpool 1-0 in the English League Cup semifinals, Tottenham’s team of established internationals toiled against a group of part-time soccer players whose main jobs included bricklaying, selling zippers and being a financial advisor.
A massive surprise was on when fifth-tier Tamworth forced extra time with the score 0-0, only for the hosts to concede an own-goal in the 101st minute and then strikes by Dejan Kulusevski and Brennan Johnson to disappoint the majority of the 3,700 fans inside the tiny stadium called The Lamb.
Tottenham manager Ange Postecoglou felt compelled to bring on his top players including Son Heung-min, Kulusevski and Dominic Solanke from the substitutes' bench to eventually overpower Tamworth, which is 16th in the National League and was playing in the third round for first time since 2012.
“It’s a game of football you go into with trepidation and knowing you can slip up," Postecoglou said. “The boys kept their heads. I thought they stayed calm and persisted and got through."
Ninety-five places were between the teams in the league pyramid.
"Amazing day and a shame we couldn’t get over the line," Tamworth midfielder Tom McGlinchey said. “Back to work lecturing tomorrow — back to the day job unfortunately.”
In previous years, Tamworth would have earned a money-spinning replay by holding Tottenham to a draw in regulation time. However, replays were scrapped from this season because of the increasingly busy calendar.
There was some hilarity before kickoff, with the game having to be delayed because of an issue with the netting on one of the goals. A Tamworth player got on a teammate’s shoulder to fix the problem.
In another early game on Sunday, fourth-tier Doncaster beat Hull 5-4 on penalties after the score was 1-1 at the end of extra time.
Arsenal hosts Manchester United in the standout match of the later kickoffs.
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Steve Douglas is at https://twitter.com/sdouglas80
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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
