Tottenham Hotspur star issues apology following 4-0 defeat to Newcastle United

Tottenham Hotspur midfielder James Maddison has issued an apology to Spurs fans after his side were defeated 4-0 at St James’ Park. Goals from Anthony Gordon, Fabian Schar and a double from Alexander Isak secured a comfortable win for Eddie Howe’s side on a near-perfect afternoon for the hosts.

Spurs, however, saw their hold on 4th place slip as they moved down a place to fifth by virtue of goal difference and now trail Aston Villa by goal difference in the race for fourth place. It was a chastening afternoon for the visitors, one that was reminiscent of their 6-1 hammering in this fixture last season - a game that saw Spurs release a statement and apology after they conceded five times inside 21 minutes on that occasion.

Whilst this match was slightly more competitive, a two-minute double salvo from the hosts in the first period gave them control of the game - one that Spurs failed to wrestle back. Speaking to SpursPlay after the game, Maddison issued an apology to the travelling support who saw their side ship four goals on Tyneside, but admitted that their opponents thoroughly deserved the win and margin of victory. Maddison said: “We’re just as disappointed as any of those fans.

“We can only put our hands up and apologise to the travelling fans today. Even at the end when we went over a load of them were still clapping us after a performance like that. You don’t expect to be clapped when you go and applaud the fans so thank you to them for sticking with us.

“But I can only apologise that they had to watch that scoreline today. We weren’t good enough and we have to accept that, look in the mirror and know we weren’t good enough.

“It wasn’t just a fluke, it wasn’t that they got lucky goals, we weren’t good enough today to a man. We need to have a stern talking to ourselves to pick ourselves up because we can have a period of mourning, if you like, over it, but you’ve got to quickly switch on, the Premier League comes thick and fast, we’ve got a big game next.”