Sheringham: We'll be back

Steve Stammers13 April 2012

Teddy Sheringham said today that Tottenham's Worthington Cup Final defeat will make them even more determined to challenge for honours.

The Spurs captain, who admitted his own performance in Cardiff was less then impressive, said: "We are good enough to do that, I am convinced of it. There are some experienced players in the squad but there are some good young ones as well.

"We have enough quality to come back and to win things in the future. We will be back, I am sure of it. As a team and as a squad, we are learning. In Cardiff we had to learn the hard way.

"The defeat will hurt for a couple of days, everyone is very disappointed. But sometimes that is the way it goes but we have to recover because there is still a lot to play for this season."

Sheringham also criticised referee Graham Poll for failing to award a penalty when, he believes, he was tripped two minutes from time by Nils-Eric Johansson.

Despite the penalty controversy, Sheringham knows Tottenham had enough chances to win a final in which Blackburn goalkeeper Brad Friedel was man-of-the match. "We had plenty of chances without really playing well. I was disappointed with the way I played and with the way the team played, but their goalkeeper was man-ofthematch and that tells some sort of story.

"Les Ferdinand was excellent and on another day he could have scored three goals. We will pick ourselves up, though, there is no worry about that. It is a setback but full credit to Blackburn."

Friedel's best save came early on when Ferdinand tried to go around him but the big American dived and managed to snatch the ball away.

Friedel said: "I just stood my ground. If a striker tries to do that 10 times, he will score five and you'll save five.

"If I had got a wrong touch it would have been a penalty and in a lot of aspects of the game we were fortunate at key times. I thought when Gus Poyet hit the post it was going to be one of those days for us and so it proved."

Friedel raced the length of the pitch to join in Blackburn's celebrations at the final whistle but still maintained a perspective on the victory. He said: "It is a great day but there have been other great days. For example, there was one soon after the September 11 disaster for the USA team in Jamaica when we qualified for the World Cup.

"As for Blackburn, now we know what we have to do for the rest of the season and that is to make sure we stay in the Premiership."

Matt Jansen, who scored Blackburn's opener, hopes the triumph will spur them on in their bid to avoid the drop.

Rovers are third from bottom, four points adrift and they face Bolton, who are one place above them, on Saturday.

Jansen said: "I think this will give us a bit of confidence. We've got another cup final on Saturday against Bolton and we really need to get a result in that game."

Former Manchester United striker Sheringham also responded to Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger's criticism of the award of a European place to the Worthington Cup winners. "It is hard to finish high in the league but it is also hard to win things. We are in the game to win things.

"There are three domestic competitions at the start of the season and I am sure any team in the land would like to win one of those. If you win one of them you are worthy of a place in Europe."

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