Tottenham Striker Dominic Solanke Urges Teammates to ‘Fight Every Minute’ in Relegation Dogfight
Ben McAleer
Tottenham forward Dominic Solanke issued a rallying cry for his teammates after their 3-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace on Thursday night.
Spurs went into their midweek London derby clash one point above the relegation zone after West Ham beat Fulham on Wednesday night.
And it was Solanke who fired the north London side ahead in the first half, tucking Archie Gray’s low cross past Dean Henderson.
Spurs folded on Thursday night
However, Spurs’ night took a turn for the worse when Micky van de Ven was shown his marching orders for denying a clear and obvious goalscoring opportunity.
Ismaila Sarr scored the resulting penalty, sending Guglielmo Vicario the wrong way, before Jorgen Strand Larsen fired the Eagles in front shortly before the break.
And Palace doubled their advantage in the dying embers of the first half as Sarr bagged his second and the Eagles’ third to compound a miserable evening for Spurs.
A 3-1 loss extended Spurs’ winless run to 11 games and heightened fears that they’d drop into the Championship.
Solanke speaks up
Speaking with TNT Sports after the home defeat, Solanke spoke of his teammates’ need to ‘fight every minute’ in their bid to beat the drop.
“We've just had a big conversation. We know the position we are in is definitely not where we want to be so we need to figure out how we are going to get out of it as soon as possible,” Solanke said at full time.
“We’re not in a position to make any excuses anymore. We need to do the job on the pitch."
Solanke continued that Spurs need to adapt to unfamiliar surroundings at the foot of the table, adding: “We know the club is not used to being in this position, so we need to understand it’s not going to be easy. We need to fight every single game, every single minute, to make sure we improve.”
Spurs have weekend off before Atleti and Liverpool trips
Spurs have the weekend off owing to the fifth round of FA Cup fixtures before they return to action in the Champions League against Atletico Madrid in the first leg round-of-16 clash in Madrid.
Igor Tudor, who is under pressure to turn the club’s fortunes around having overseen three successive league defeats to kick off his reign, then takes his Spurs side to Liverpool the following weekend in a bid to kickstart their survival push.
