Published: 15 September, 2014
By DAN CARRIER

SPURS boss Mauricio Pochettino has told his players they must be more ruthless after outplaying Sunderland away from home at the weekend – but only winning a point on Wearside.

The manager, speaking after the 2-2 draw on Saturday at the Stadium of Light, said: “You need to kill the game. Today we created the chances and we didn't kill the game, and we gave the opportunity to Sunderland to score.”

Spurs dominated from the start and created numerous opportunities, including striking the woodwork twice in the second period. They led 2-1 until the 82nd minute, when a speculative freekick by Sunderland's Jordi Gomez struck substitute Harry Kane and spun past goalkeeper Hugo Lloris.

Spurs winger Nacer Chadli had opened the scoring in the first minute, only for Sunderland to hit back almost immediately through an Adam Johnson strike. The Lilywhites went on to dominate proceedings, with Mousa Dembele and Erik Lamela hitting the post and cross bar after Christian Eriksen had swept a shot home on 48 minutes.

But instead of finishing Sunderland off, they paid the price for not finding the crucial third goal.

Pochettino said he was disappointed with the result but pleased with his side's progress.

The manager added: “I am very disappointed – and my players too – because we played very well. We created a lot of chances and we managed the game. We were unlucky because our performance was good. I think we deserved more. On another day, you could create fewer chances and win the game. Today, we were unlucky because the last goal we conceded, the ball could have gone across the goal and gone away.”