Ward-Prowse: Result didn’t reflect performance

Saints took the lead inside two minutes through Virgil van Dijk, but were pegged back before half time against the run of play through Dele Alli’s header.

Harry Kane’s header put the visitors in front before Nathan Redmond was sent off, with Spurs adding two late goals to add gloss to a scoreline which was tough to take.

“It’s a disappointing result,” said Ward-Prowse. “The ten day break we had did us a lot of good and we came out of the blocks flying tonight with a lot of high energy and pressed high to really hone that advantage in the first 20 minutes.

"But things were difficult once they took control of the game and we struggled to take hold of their shape and it didn’t go too well from there.

“As soon as you score the first goal you want to hone the advantage and get a second and a third, but when they equalise it’s very difficult.”

WE CAN TAKE THE POSITIVES FROM THE WAY WE PERFORMED AS A UNIT AND AS A TEAM. 

JAMES WARD-PROWSE
SOUTHAMPTON MIDFIELDER

Ward-Prowse felt that the second half dismissal of Redmond was a turning point in the contest.

“It’s a difficult one,” he said. “Nathan’s got to make a challenge and he’s the last player who has got to try and stop the striker from scoring. The red card is the referee’s decision but we can take the positives from the way we performed as a unit and as a team.

“Of course it’s difficult to pick yourselves up from then and obviously the red card is one of those things which as a team we had to deal with. 

“We dealt well with it at times and we just have to pick ourselves up now to go again.”