Tottenham Hotspur coach Chris Powell singled out Rodel Richards and J’Neil Bennett for praise after the youngsters both scored in this week’s 3-1 Premier League 2 victory over Leicester City, speaking to the Spurs website.
While Jose Mourinho’s side have now dropped 18 points from winning positions this season – the second-highest tally in the entire top-flight – at least Spurs’ next generation don’t seem to have the same problem.
To quote Arsene Wenger, Tottenham’s U23s showed plenty of ‘bouncebackability’ away at Leicester, recovering from Marcel Lavinier’s third minute own goal to claim a deserved and hard-fought win.
After Dilan Markanday’s equaliser, Rodel Richards marked his first appearance in six months with a well-taken finish of his own.
There are worse ways to Quite to return from half a year on the sidelines.
Teenager Bennett then turned on the style, capping a fine win with a weaving wondergoal in the second half.
“As the team has shown all season, they have a real resilience and there is a real togetherness about the players,” Powell explains.
“We deservedly got an equaliser through Dilan and then the second half was one-way traffic really. It was a wonderful individual goal from J’Neil Bennett and then it was a real great moment for RJ (Richards).
“He’s worked ever so hard having been out for six months and he gets the third goal, which really capped off a great evening for us.”
Neither Richards, Markanday nor Bennett have made a first-team appearance for Tottenham yet but, while Mourinho is not exactly famed for giving youth a chance, he has handed out debuts to a few deserving talents this season.
Alfie Devine, Dane Scarlett, Nile John, Harvey White and Lavinier himself have all featured for the first-team in 2020/21.
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