Tottenham Hotspur served up a torrid performance against Middlesbrough on Tuesday night – and both Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker felt the display transmitted to supporters.
Tottenham travelled up to Teesside to take on Boro in the fifth round of the FA Cup, having seen of Morecambe and Brighton in previous rounds.
Many will have been expecting a win against Championship opposition, especially having smashed Leeds United in a morale-boosting 4-0 victory.
Yet having dumped Manchester United out in the last round, Boro were never going to be a pushover.
Tottenham looked slow and exhausted with Conte deciding to start the exact same team that beat Leeds.
The game went into extra time with neither side able to make the breakthrough before Josh Coburn smashed a finish past Hugo Lloris.
Tottenham had no response, leaving Boro to celebrate another huge cup win. For Antonio Conte, it’s another dismal night.
Tottenham just couldn’t get going at the Riverside Stadium, with attacking trio Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Dejan Kulusevski looking particularly off-colour.
At half time in extra time, the mood around the Riverside had clearly captured attention of both Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker.
The pair were covering the game for BBC Sport and noticed a low mood amongst the Tottenham fans situated near the BBC studio.
Speaking live on air (10:06pm), both Shearer and Lineker noted that Tottenham fans had gone quiet – just like their team.
“Tottenham seem pretty flat, they’re struggling with their performance. In fact, the fans below us, just below the box here, they’ve been pretty quiet – kept quiet by Middlesbrough’s performance,” said Lineker.
“Even the Tottenham fans beneath us here in the studio have gone very quiet, as have their team!” Shearer concurred.
Both pundits seemingly felt that Boro’s outstanding display had not only galvanised their own fans but silenced Tottenham’s.
With a flat on-field performance and fans seemingly realising this was going to be a bad night, the lack of noise was no great surprise.
This goes back to the old conversation; do fans need to drive the team on or do players need to inspire fans?
On Tuesday night, Tottenham had neither.
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