Coventry 1-2 Tottenham: Spurs substitutes spare blushes with late show in Carabao Cup

Tottenham produced a dramatic late turnaround to survive a huge scare against Championship side Coventry and advance in the Carabao Cup.

Substitutes Djed Spence and Brennan Johnson scored in the 88th and 92nd minutes respectively to rescue an otherwise well below-par performance from much-changed Spurs, who were on the brink of falling at the first hurdle in this competition for the second season in a row in the West Midlands courtesy of Brandon Thomas-Asante’s second-half effort.

Postecoglou would have been facing plenty of criticism for a third straight loss to follow Premier League defeats at the hands of Newcastle and fierce rivals Arsenal, particularly having once again made wholesale (eight) changes in the cup despite having doubled down on his ‘second season’ trophy claim following the disappointment of losing another north London derby on Sunday.

However, his in-game changes on the night eventually paid off in the most thrilling fashion to book a spot in next week’s fourth-round draw.

Coventry - who also showed seven changes from their 1-1 draw at Watford in the Championship on Saturday - created the best chances of the first half, both of which fell to midfielder Jack Rudoni.

The former AFC Wimbledon man could have scored with less than a minute on the clock, seeing a low strike repelled by Fraser Forster after the Tottenham goalkeeper - making his first appearance since the second-round defeat by Fulham on penalties in this competition a year ago - had given the ball away woefully trying to pick out Lucas Bergvall, making his full Spurs debut alongside fellow teenage signing Archie Gray.

Rudoni was later denied by a crucial block from Destiny Udogie after a deep cross from Jake Bidwell, before teenage forward Norman Bassette fizzed a dangerous effort off target.

Tottenham dominated first-half possession to the tune of 76 per cent, but did absolutely nothing with it and failed to register a single shot on or off target, also losing Wilson Odobert to an early injury that led to Johnson’s premature introduction.

There were chances for both sides at the beginning of a lively second period, until Coventry began to dominate with an effective high press that saw Spurs wilt and concede numerous opportunities, with Forster spilling a corner and then racing out of his box and inadvertently cleaning out his own defender in Radu Dragusin before Ben Davies made a vital block to clear off the line from Haji Wright.

Davies almost scored with a header at the other end saved by Ben Wilson, before Coventry piled on more pressure and finally made it count when an unmarked Thomas-Asante slid Bassette’s low cross beyond the helpless Forster with just over an hour played - and just after Postecoglou had sent on both captain Heung-min Son and former Coventry star James Maddison.

Ephron Mason-Clark came agonisingly close to a second Coventry goal after Ellis Simms’ shot had been blocked by Dragusin, with Wilson then making another massive stop to keep out an attempt from Dejan Kulusevski, who replaced the injured Timo Werner.

Time looked to be quickly running out for Tottenham, until Spence prodded home the equaliser after fellow substitutes Maddison and Kulusevski combined to great effect.

The game then looked to be heading to the lottery of a penalty shootout, until Coventry crucially lost the ball in a dangerous area and Johnson maintained his composure to beat Wilson and stun the hosts after an almighty scare.

It was a perfect riposte from the Welsh international, who deactivated his Instagram account earlier this week following online abuse received after the north London derby.