LONDON – Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou said that his side lacked “conviction” as they were thrashed 4-0 by Newcastle United in the English Premier League on April 13.

The Magpies also rekindled their outside hopes of a place in next season’s Champions League.

Spurs’ loss meant that they fell to fifth behind Aston Villa on goal difference on 60 points, ahead of Newcastle (50) in sixth, although Manchester United could move to 52 points should they win at Bournemouth.

The result of that match was unavailable at press time.

“It’s a tough one, a bit raw at the moment. Credit to Newcastle, I thought they were really good today,” Postecoglou said on the BBC.

“We never really got to grips with the game and weren’t able to execute the stuff we usually do.

“I thought we lacked a little bit of conviction today throughout a lot of things.

“They can hurt you particularly in transition and they did that today.”

Tottenham, who conceded five times in the opening 21 minutes of a 6-1 humiliation on their last visit to St James’ Park, were outmuscled and outclassed once more on Tyneside.

Eddie Howe was forced to switch to a back three due to Newcastle’s abundance of injuries in defence. But the home side’s makeshift backline was rarely troubled.

The game then swung decisively in Newcastle’s favour thanks to two goals in two minutes – all because of two errors from Micky van de Ven midway through the first half.

The centre-back’s first slip allowed Alexander Isak to smash home from Anthony Gordon’s pass to open the scoring.

Straight from kick-off, van de Ven fell over again as he tried to reach Pedro Porro’s back pass.

Gordon took full advantage to score his 10th Premier League goal of the campaign.

Any doubts over the outcome were dismissed six minutes into the second period, as Isak again beat van de Ven to Bruno Guimaraes’ long ball over the top and slotted home for his 17th league goal.

Postecoglou showed his dismay with the Spurs display, as captain Son Heung-min was hauled off in a triple substitution before the hour mark.

The visitors also lost right-back Porro to injury to rub salt into the wounds of what could be a damaging day for their hopes of a return to the Champions League.

And if that was not enough, Fabian Schar inflicted the final blow when he rose highest to power in Gordon’s corner three minutes from time.

“You’ve got no choice. You can’t sit there and feel sorry for yourself, it’s not the nature of what we do,” Postecoglou added when asked about the significance of this defeat.

“There’s some lessons in there, we’ve got to take them and look ahead.”

Howe, meanwhile, was full of praise for his players.

“It was a great performance from us, I thought the players executed everything in a really professional, diligent way. Really pleased with the players,” the Newcastle boss told the BBC.

“We protected the lead really well because we went for more goals and were aggressive still.

“We looked in a really great place physically, were able to execute what we wanted to do...

“I think everyone performed at a very good level.” AFP