Postecoglou brands Brighton loss his ‘worst defeat’

Tottenham Hotspur manager Ange Postecoglou said his side’s 3-2 defeat against Brighton in the Premier League as his “worst defeat” since joining Tottenham.

Tottenham ended the first-half 2-0 up after goals from Brennan Johnson and James Maddison before conceding three times in the second-half.

“It was disappointing and I’m absolutely gutted with that,” Postecoglou said. “It’s an unacceptable second half — we were nowhere near where we should be. Maybe we got carried away with how we were going.

“We kind of accepted our fate and it’s hard to understand as we’ve not done that while I’ve been here. We usually fight for everything, and when you don’t you pay a price.”

Tottenham would have moved to the fringe of the top four had they won the game but instead go in to the international break in ninth place with 10 points from their seven matches.

Brighton are up to sixth, two points better off.

Postecoglou criticised his side’s mentality and complacency in the second-half, adding: “Maybe things were travelling on too smoothly. Football and life will trip you up if you get too far ahead of yourself and that’s what it looked like in the second half.

“It’s a terrible loss for us, as bad as it gets, and there’s only one way to fix it and that’s my responsibility.

“We lost all our duels, we weren’t competitive and if you’re not competitive, irrespective of what you do tactically, it is not going to work.”

Information from Reuters contributed to this report.