James Maddison and Brennan Johnson grin at World Darts Championship hours after Tottenham draw left Postecoglou ‘hurt’

JAMES MADDISON and Brennan Johnson were spotted enjoying the darts at Ally Pally following Tottenham’s 2-2 draw with Wolves.

Ange Postecoglou‘s men conceded a late equaliser in North London, before the Australian coach confirmed the players were “hurting”.

PA

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PA

The Spurs players have been given Monday and Tuesday off to recover from a demanding Christmas period – which has seen them play 10 games since November 28.

And Maddison and Johnson – who scored Spurs’ second goal – took the time to head to the darts to watch the likes of Luke Humphries, Gerwyn Price and Peter Wright.

The pair could be seen smiling from their tables as they took in the raucous Ally Pally atmosphere.

Maddison, 28, is known as a big fan of the sport – and often mimes throwing a dart after scoring a goal.

But it has been a difficult time for Spurs following just one win in seven Premier League games.

After the match, Postecoglou said: “It hurts me because I’m responsible ultimately. I’m the person in charge. So of course it hurts.

“When I see how hard they are trying, it hurts even more because you want them to get a reward and I think today they deserved a reward for their efforts even though they were dipping into their reserves of energy, which I don’t even know where they got from.

“I wanted them to get a reward for their efforts.

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“It hurts immensely. At the same time it’s my responsibility for where we’re at right now and it’s my responsibility to try to get us out of it.”

The Spurs boss also explained why he is giving the players two days off.

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He added: “It was always planned. We knew this is the first week where we don’t have a midweek game, so I think the whole group probably needs a couple of days just to get away from everything and recover.

“It’ll do them good to have a couple of days to themselves with their families and give them a chance to recover mentally as much as physically.”

Spurs have now failed to win at home in their last five league games – an unwanted feat not managed since 2008.

While seven wins in 19 league games means they are a point nearer to the relegation zone than they are to the top four.

Yet Postecoglou still believes his side can achieve something in the league this season.

The Aussie, whose team are through to the Carabao Cup semi-finals and still in Europe, added: “I just feel that at some point we’ll get a relatively healthy squad and when we do that we’ll be able to perform at a high level consistently and we’ve already shown this year we can beat anyone.

“There’s a chance there you can go on a run.

“But at the moment that’s secondary to the first bit, we have to try to get some support for the players – both mentally and physically and in terms of numbers to give them the opportunity to play at their best.”

Meanwhile, Rodrigo Bentancur is now banned for Saturday’s hosting of Newcastle after a needless foul in stoppage time on Rodrigo Gomes earned him his fifth yellow card of the season.

Had he waited a week, the cautions picked up in the first half of the campaign would have been wiped.

Postecoglou added: “It was an unfortunate moment, didn’t really need to happen and I’d much rather he didn’t make that tackle and was available for the next game.

“The players are obviously hurting, they want to turn this around and it’s not for the want of trying.”