We deserved a point, says Rodgers

Swansea City manager Brendan Rodgers has credited his side for not being ‘heroic losers’ after Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Tottenham.

English Premier League title challengers Tottenham looked on track to capitalise on slip ups by Chelsea and Manchester United elsewhere when Rafael Van der Vaart lashed home in the first half.

But Scott Sinclair’s equaliser with six minutes remaining ensured the points were shared, and Rodgers believed it a justified result.

“I felt it was the least we deserved. We are coming up against a team who is the form team in the country and regarded as one of the best passing teams in the country,” Rodgers said.

“I thought we were brilliant today and we were very unfortunate to be behind. A deflection took the ball onto (Rafael) Van der Vaart and he finished well. I said to the players at half-time that we have just got to keep going and eventually the opportunities will come.”

“We thoroughly deserved it, like I say. Tactically they were fantastic, I felt we needed to be brave enough to press the ball high up the field and have good organisation behind the ball, so to restrict players like Luka Modric and Gareth Bale to the games that they had was a great sign of a wonderful team performance. It was really good psychologically as you say because we don’t want to be heroic losers, play so well and people talk about our football and then we lose the game.”

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp had nothing but praise for Rodgers’ Swansea, and refused to accept the notion that the result may be fatal for Spurs’ title chances.

“I like the way they play. I think (Rodgers has) done a fantastic job here with them, getting them (to play like that),” Redknapp said.

“I think the way they play and pass the ball is amazing really. You know, the belief that is instilled into the players to play football like that, I think, is top class.”

“I don’t look at it like that (whether the result is two points dropped in the title race). There’s a long way to go. It shows you how difficult it is to win football matches. You know, if you’d have said to me today that Man United were not going to beat Blackburn? How could you see that? That’s football isn’t it.”