Tottenham vs Hull: Villas-Boas Praises Supporters After Dramatic Penalty Shootout Victory

Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas, just three days after criticising the fans for their lack of support, was all praise them this time around after they cheered Spurs to victory in the Capital One Cup fourth round game against Hull.

Villas-Boas lambasted the negative atmosphere the fans had created in the 1-0 English Premier League victory over Hull on Sunday, but the fans voiced their full support on Wednesday with Spurs running out winners against the same opponents, via a penalty shootout, after the match ended 2-2 after extra time.

"It was a great, entertaining game and the supporters were absolutely fantastic," Villas-Boas said.

"To see their response after we suffered a setback was very pleasant, they can make that difference for us. It was a great atmosphere and it was great for the team to feel that empathy with the supporters."

Gylfi Sigurdsson put Spurs ahead in the 16^th minute with a brilliant strike from distance, before Brad Friedel's own goal gave Hull a chance. Steve Bruce's men then gained the upperhand in extra time courtesy Paul McShane only for Harry Kane to equalise and send the game into the shootout.

After both Hull and Spurs missed a penalty each, Friedel atoned for his previous mistake by saving Ahmed Elmohamady's spotkick to send Spurs into the quarterfinals, where they will face West Ham.

"They were great penalties and the funny thing is we hadn't trained for them," Villas-Boas added. "We trained so hard for the penalties against Basel and that ended up a disaster. That is the nature of the game.

"When you least expect to see things like this happening, we break the hoodoo and it puts us through to a great quarter-final against West Ham."

Hull will wonder just how they left White Hart Lane without anything to show for their efforts after two matches, and Villas-Boas admitted Spurs rode their luck at times to pull off a victory on Wednesday.

"We played really well in the first half," he said. "We wanted to have a little more penetration but there was some really great football, speed in possession, lots of one-touch combinations and I was really happy with the performance.

"Credit to Hull, they changed their formation from five at the back to a 4-4-2 and really had a go at us. In the end, they deserved to get back into the game. We kept on creating chances and we managed to equalise. It was end-to-end from both teams.

"We suffered at 1-1 and then 2-1 but the supporters were always there supporting us and they were rewarded with the ending of a (penalty shootout) hoodoo that has been chasing us for some time."