‘Missed opportunity’ - Tottenham Hotspur man says sorry to fans after Sheffield United defeat

Stand-in boss Cristian Stellini apologised to Tottenham Hotspur’s supporters after their FA Cup exit at the hands of Sheffield United this evening.

The top-flight giants were below-par all evening, with United goalkeeper Wes Foderingham forced to make only two routine saves. Spurs hit the bar with a fortuituous mishit cross from Lucas Moura, while skipper Harry Kane came off the bench and headed a golden chance wide later in the game.

United booked their place in the last eight courtesy of a superb solo strike from Iliman Ndiaye and will face Blackburn Rovers at home for the chance to reach a Wembley semi-final.

And Stellini, standing-in for boss Antonio Conte as he recovers from surgery, insisted the right side had been picked to face the Blades.

“We used a good team to play this game against this type of opponent, the problem was the energy,” he said. “If that's not at the same level as your opponent sometimes you can lose. We had opportunities but couldn't find the target. This was the problem for me, the energy in this type of game. I'm disappointed with that. 

“It's not about motivation, I don't think so. If you don't play consistently, maybe sometimes you try to manage the energy differently or drop it in the start because you think the game is easy. Our games are never easy. It's about mentality.

“I think we missed a big opportunity. We have to apologise to the fans, there were 5,000 here to watch our performance and we apologise because we missed a great opportunity.”