Archie Gray gives honest assessment of win at Tamworth | OneFootball

On Sunday afternoon, Tottenham Hotspur advanced to the fourth round of the FA Cup, with a 3-0 win over Tamworth after extra time. However, the last three words there are the key ones. It was a really poor performance from Spurs, whom would never have imagined that they would need to play two hours to get over the line.

Had this game happened prior to this season, Spurs would be adding another game to their calendar, with a replay at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. However, the likes of Pep Guardiola, Jurgen Klopp, and everybody else who complained about replays, got their way, and they were officially scrapped for this season.

This development was fortunate for Spurs. The replay could only be sandwiched in between the Everton and Hoffenheim games - meaning they would have had to play three games in six days, and it would have been deserved for such a poor performance. Extremely lucky.

Youngster gives honest verdict of the win over Tamworth

Speaking to the ITV cameras after the game, Archie Gray was not best pleased with the teams performance. Asked by Gabriel Clarke what the overriding feeling was, the 18 year old responded: "I think the most important thing is we got the win. You know, credit to them, they took us to extra time. Especially being where they are in the league, it's definitely a credit to them.

We weren't good enough for 90 minutes, quite a few of us weren't at the races today, but yeah, credit to them." When asked why that was the case, Gray responded: "It's not really any of those reasons [the ground, the pitch, coming off the back of a big win against Liverpool], not going to make excuses about the pitch or anything like that, because we've all played on pitches like that when we were younger.

It's not different for us, it's a little bit of a change, but we're not going to make excuses about that. Sometimes in football that just happens, these games, they're never going to be easy. Especially coming here, the fans were brilliant, [and] yeah they made it tough for us."

The teenager was then asked what pulled Spurs through in extra time, and said: "We brought on some quality, and the quality just shone through, especially in the last 15 minutes of extra time. I thought our fitness showed, but that definitely doesn't take anything away from then and what they did for 90 minutes."

Then, the interviewer referenced Tamworth being part time, and 96 places below Spurs, implying how that made their performance so impressive. In agreement, Gray said: "Yeah definitely, I said in the interview before [the game] this is what the FA Cup is all about, coming here and getting to see all of the clubs in English football. It's nice, and the fans were brilliant. It was a great day. It was tough but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Finally, Clarke mentioned that Spurs like to put their fans through it, where Gray smiled and said: "Yeah definitely, we do. We try not to, but we like to do it the hard way."

Really mature words from such a young player. It does make you wonder why an 18 year old was the one who was interviewed, and not an older player? Particularly as one of the few players who played well. Outside of Antonin Kinsky, Yves Bissouma, and Sergio Reguilon, there were very few good performances from anyone out there.

It is a shame for Gray that he was not able to get some rest, and had to play another two hours, just three days before a crucial North London derby. Nevertheless, they also had to play 120 minutes today, so even if no fitness advantage gained for Spurs, there certainly wasn't any lost. Anyone know how that game ended up?