Tottenham Hotspur star Harry Kane revealed that an "honest conversation" with chairman Daniel Levy set the stage for a morale-boosting 2-2 draw with Manchester United and helped overcome a wave of discontent among supporters.
Spurs players interacted with chairman Levy after the 6-1 hammering at Newcastle United last weekend. The horror show at Newcastle more or less ended Tottenham's top-four hopes and also saw players reimburse fans for the cost incurred for the trip to Tyneside.
It also cost stand-in manager Cristian Stellini his job, with former midfielder Ryan Mason taking charge of Thursday's battling home draw against United.
Following the match against Erik ten Hag's team, Kane revealed talks were held with the under-fire Levy.
"The chairman asked for a meeting," Kane, the club's record scorer said. "Obviously I won't go into what was said but I think it was important (for him) to understand where the players' heads were at in that moment.
"Obviously coming off the back of that (Newcastle) result and it wasn't just that result, it had been building up since the international break when we conceded twice against Southampton.
"It was an honest conversation of where everyone is at and what we need to try to do to give us the best possible chance to finish the season with something."
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Son Heung-Min of Tottenham Hotspur scores his team's second goal past David De Gea of Manchester United at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday, April 27, 2023. Getty -
Son Heung-min celebrates after scoring Tottenham's equaliser against Manchester United. EPA -
Manchester United's Marcus Rashford celebrates with Diogo Dalot and Christian Eriksen after scoring his team's second goal. Getty -
Manchester United's Marcus Rashford, left, scores against Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday. AP -
Tottenham's Pedro Porro, right, scored his sides opening goal. AP -
Ryan Mason, interim manager of Tottenham Hotspur, speaks to Pedro Porro. Getty -
Manchester United's Jadon Sancho scores past Tottenham Hotspur's Fraser Forster. Reuters -
Manchester United's Jadon Sancho celebrates scoring with Casemiro. Reuters
Kane and Spurs were applauded at full-time on Thursday night but the atmosphere had threatened to turn explosive when Marcus Rashford added to Jadon Sancho's early opener to make it 2-0 to United at the break.
It left Mason, in his second caretaker spell in charge, with a big half-time team talk. He remained calm and saw Pedro Porro and Son Heung-min net in the second period to help Tottenham restore some pride.
Kane added: "It was quite calm. Ryan said not to try to get back in the game in the first five minutes of the second half.
"He said, 'there's another 45 minutes, be compact, be ready to hurt them like we did in the first half but now we have to be more clinical'.
"We all said once we get one, we know we can really put pressure on them and that's what happened. A shame we couldn't then get the third but overall, when you're 2-0 down, it was good to get a point out of it.
"I think Ryan's been great. He's come in at a really difficult time after that defeat and he's not had long to implement any style, so it's all been about motivation and getting some belief back in the boys."
Tottenham head into Sunday's match away to Liverpool still in fifth place but six points behind United having played two games more than their fourth-placed rivals.
