ANGE Postecoglou praised Newcastle United after Tottenham's heavy defeat on Tyneside - but rejected suggestions his players were still haunted by last year's hammering at St James' Park.

A year on from their 6-1 humiliation at the hands of the Magpies, Spurs again came unstuck against Newcastle, losing 4-0 on Saturday.

Six of the players who featured in last year's mauling were again involved for Tottenham this time around but Postecoglou was having none of it when it was put to him that the scars from the 6-1 hadn't healed.

He said: "I think nine of those or 10 of those would have played when we beat them 4-1 (earlier this season), so I don’t know why one is more…We have had a game against them this season. I’d be very surprised if that’s the case.

"I think there are other explanations beyond that as to why we didn’t perform. Some of it is down to the opposition, some of it is just down to us, we didn’t really try and we didn’t really get a control of the game, like we have been, and we paid a price for that."

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Postecoglou added: "Newcastle were good, credit to them, I thought they were really good today. We just didn’t really get a grip of the game at all. Right from the start it felt like we allowed Newcastle to dictate the way the game was played, we never really wrestled control at any stage. We paid a price for that."

Spurs had 73% of possession but only mustered two shots on target and were vulnerable to Newcastle's counter attacking threat all afternoon.

"As I said, we allowed them to dictate the way the game was played, ended up being a transition game, a lot of it was self-inflicted by us, we weren’t brave on the ball," said Postecoglou.

"We’ve been really good this year at understanding that when we have the ball we can be a threat, certain players, we just shied away from that today.

"When you do that you allow the game to be played on Newcastle’s terms. When that happens especially away from home it’s hard for us to then claw it back once it’s got away from us."