‘The perfect bicycle-kick!’ Frank praises Romero as Spurs captain scores late equaliser at St. James’ Park | OneFootball

Thomas Frank was full of praise for Spurs skipper Cristian Romero following the Argentine’s 95th minute overhead kick to rescue Tottenham a point at St. James’ Park.

“Let’s start by praising Cuti, overall it was a top performance defending on the ball.” Frank said, “and then getting up there and scoring two goals. I think the bicycle-kick will get more praise, but I think the header is more exceptional. The way he does that is better than many strikers.”

Romero drew Spurs level in the 78th minute with a diving header that sent the visiting fans into raptures, though their delight was soon cut short when Anthony Gordon converted from the spot to restore Newcastle’s lead eight minutes later following a lengthy VAR check.

On the penalty decision, which adjudged Rodrigo Bentancur to have dragged Dan Burn down in the box, Frank said: “For me it’s never a penalty, even speaking to some people from Newcastle they don’t think it’s a penalty. We need consistency. I actually think the referee nailed his call on the pitch.”

“But I want to speak about us, and the mentality to come back and the mentality away from home. I’m happy with that.”

On the travelling fans, Frank said: “It’s a difficult place to come as an away fan and be loud enough for us to hear them. They put so much effort into it and matched the effort from the team. That togetherness drove us forward and it gave us a more than well deserved point.”

Frank’s tenure at Tottenham has been consistently inconsistent, with each impressive performance seemingly complemented by a noticeably lacklustre one. On the team’s recent struggles, Frank spoke of Romero’s individual heroism: “We can set everything up tactically well and set up our principles and that’s the foundation to hopefully make a great team. But sometimes it’s decisive actions from key players and Cuti definitely did that today.”

“I really like the character and mentality of the team after three tough games. To go down twice and come back twice shows everything about the willingness and mentality. If you’re in a tough run there’s only one way out of it; that is to work hard and keep going and the team did that very well today.”