Tottenham Hotspur manager Tim Sherwood, for once, praised his team’s start to a game after Emmanuel Adebayor struck twice in a 4-0 romp at Newcastle United on Wednesday.
It was the London club’s first win at St James’s Park since 2004 and left them with outside title hopes, occupying fifth place in the Premier League, seven points behind leaders Chelsea.
Togo striker Adebayor opened the scoring on 19 minutes and Brazil midfielder Paulinho grabbed the second in the 53rd as Spurs silenced the home crowd.
Adebayor then made it 3-0 before Nacer Chadli wrapped up the victory with a wonderful curling effort from 20 metres two minutes from time.
“I’ve been critical of the way we’ve started games but not today. We came out of the blocks firing, we set our tone and kept their crowd quiet,” Sherwood told the BBC.
“The boys looked sharp from the start and they were still there at the end queuing up to score more goals which is pleasing.”
Adebayor was out of favour under Andre Villas-Boas but has now scored nine goals in 12 appearances in all competitions since Sherwood took over as the Portuguese’s successor.
“He’s doing fantastic. He’s a credit to every young player at our club. They look up to him, the way he trains and conducts himself and he’s been a fantastic example,” Sherwood said.
“There’s only one form of motivation and that’s self-motivation and I think Ade’s got that in abundance.”
Sherwood urged his side to maintain the pressure on fourth-placed Liverpool who won 3-2 at Fulham on Wednesday.
“We have to keep on the tails of Liverpool. They got a good result again tonight, they’re relentless,” said the Spurs boss.
“They keep going but we have to do that as well and hopefully they keep checking their shoulder and Tottenham are still there.”
REUTERS
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