Tottenham Showed Big Personality Against Man United, Says Mason

Tottenham's interim head coach Ryan Mason has hailed his players' character in coming back from two goals down to share the spoils against Manchester United.

Spurs fell behind just after seven minutes courtesy of a Jason Sancho strike and slipped even further when Marcus raced past Eric Dier and scored United's second on Thursday night.

Both goals came in the first half and exacerbated the worries of the home fans who were left devastated in the wake of their 6-1 thrashing by Newcastle at St James' Park on Super Sunday.

The forlorn look on the faces of the home crowd however turned to smiles in the second half as strikes from Pedro Porro and Son Heung-min salvaged a 2-2 draw for Spurs to boost their chances of qualifying for the Champions League next season.

Mason was impressed with the second half response from his players in his first match in charge following the unceremonious exit of Cristian Stellini. 

"Big character, big personality, stuck together, kept believing, acted as a team throughout the whole game," he said in his press conference.

"That pleases me after what happened at the weekend because we probably didn't have that as a group.

"Off the back of how the first half went, in terms of the scoreline, to go out and stick together, fight for each other and really get the fans involved - and I felt like they helped us massively - is pleasing.

"It proves a lot to me that I already thought about this group but to see it on the pitch is a good feeling.

"We created many chances in the second half, in the first half as well. Maybe if we were a bit more clinical, the flow of the game would have been different.

"But in the second half we kept pushing, we had some really clear openings. Maybe if we had got the second goal earlier, we could have kept pushing.

"I felt like, once we scored the second, the lads had invested so much energy that we went a little bit flat. But to come off 2-2 after being 2-0 down at half-time is a positive.

"You have to stick together in every moment. If you want to be a team, regardless of what's happening on the pitch, you have to stick together and fight for each other and that's what we did."