Premier League

TOTTENHAM 1 (Kane 8)
BRENTFORD 3 (Mbeumo 50, 62, Wissa 88)

IT was a fitting end to a disappointing home campaign – a defeat to Brentford in a tepid manner encapsulated so much of what has been wrong with Tottenham this season.

Spurs took an early lead through Harry Kane – who else? – but Thomas Frank’s side scored three well-crafted second half goals to turn the match around and take all three points.

The result means Tottenham look likely, at best, to qualify for the European wooden spoon that is the Europa Conference league.

Stand-in coach Ryan Mason said after Saturday’s latest disappointment: “Our intensity dropped in the second half. We needed to take our opportunities when they came. We didn’t and Brentford did.”

Mason also shrugged off attempts to paint Kane’s long goodbye to fans at the end as a sign the striker will not be turning out in Lilywhite come August.

He added: “I saw him waving two years ago and you guys were convinced he was leaving. He was just thanking the fans as he does every season.”

Mason was forced into making changes against Brentford and while he may not have asked for the hand he was dealt, it gave him scope to shift his pieces about the board without criticism.

It meant a flat back four, with Clement Lenglet and Davinson Sanchez partnered up for the first time, and Yves Bissouma returning in midfield for the absent Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg.

Whatever the thinking, it worked – at least at first. The laborious Eric Dier and Hojbjerg – shoe-in starters all term – were not even on the bench and it felt a little like the shackles were off and maybe Tottenham fans were getting a glimpse of what next season’s starting line-up might look like.

Perhaps it was just the sense that the game was a dead rubber. Perhaps it was the freedom of not being asked to play in a system that has brought nothing but grief all season.

Perhaps it was a side whose heart is completely knackered, and the idea of not being sent out to do what never works was a psychological boost for all involved.

Whatever the reasons, the early summer sunshine bathed the players in gentle light and they responded with some bright attacking patterns in the first half.

For once it was Spurs who drew first blood. Oliver Skipp won a 50-50 ball but was fouled while doing so. Dejan Kulusevski rolled the resulting free-kick a foot to one side and Kane didn’t need a second invitation to curl the perfect finish into the top corner from 35 yards.

If it is the last goal Kane ever scores for Tottenham in this stadium, it was of fitting quality.

The home side were enjoying more space than they had known virtually all season and were being invited to play attacking football. They responded well and should have killed the game off before half-time.

Emerson Royal had a header cleared off the line, Heung-Min Son a shot saved, while Arnaut Danjuma placed a header agonizingly wide. Brentford keeper David Raya has been linked to a move to Spurs this summer and if this was an audition he also did well.

Raya commanded his box at corners, showed his shot-stopping abilities – he blocked Son as the forward bore down on goal, and pushed away a Kulusevski drive from the angle with no issues. There was nothing Raya could have done with the Kane goal.

But from a first half of calm dominance to a second half of slapstick comedy. Brentford came back into it on 50 minutes as they capitalised on some lazy Spurs play down the right.

The visitors won possession through Mathias Jensen, by-passed Tottenham’s half-hearted press, and when the ball reached Bryan Mbeumo on the far side, the striker had time to cut back in and then slide a shot into the bottom corner.

Brentford’s second came the same way, 10 minutes later: Kane was bundled off the ball centrally, the referee said the challenge was fine, and Mbeumo dashed down the Spurs left. He finished across Fraser Forster for the second time.

Tottenham struggled to lay a glove in the second half, and the humiliation was complete on 88 minutes. Skipp dithered with the ball in front of his own penalty box and it was obvious as three Brentford players charged him down what was going to happen next.

When the midfielder lost possession, Yoane Wissa was on hand to scoop over Forster and finish Tottenham’s season off at home in the manner in which it has been played all year.

Even a siege at the end was led half-heartedly. The full-time whistle – and the end of the campaign – couldn’t come soon enough.

Tottenham: Forster; Royal (Porro, 74), Sanchez, Lenglet, Davies (Perisic, 84) Skipp, Bissouma, Kulusevski (Richarlison, 74), Danjuma (Moura, 65), Son, Kane
Substitutes not used: Austin, Tanganga, Dier, Craig, Sarr, Lucas

Brentford: Raya; Hickey (Roerslev, 88), Pinnock, Mee, Henry, Onyeka (Damsgaard, 45), Janelt, Jensen (Baptiste, 72), Mbeumo, Schade (Jorgensen, 77), Wissa ( Dasilva, 89)
Substitutes not used: Strakosha, Zanka, Ghoddos, Ajer, Trevitt