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"At half time I had to get into them big time and sort a few of them out really because I was disappointed with that first half. Second half we were a different team. We pressed them and put them under pressure. We closed them down, we played, we passed it, and we moved off the ball. We've got to play like that all the time. We can't play like we did first half, but in the end it was a great result.
"It was nice to get the early goal, it gave us the lift we needed and gave the crowd a lift because the first half was a disappointing half for us. We really were poor and they were better than us there was no doubt. You can see why they've done so well, they are well organised, they pass the ball, they had a good shape about them, they only played the one up but they joined him, he worked his socks off the little guy up front for them.
"I said at half time we were too deep we needed to squeeze to compress the play, squeeze from the back because our midfield couldn't make contact with them because we were so stretched they made the pitch far too big when we never had the ball. We squeezed up second half and got in contact with them and played from there. We were much better second half."
Owen Coyle admitted there was a mountain to climb after the four Tottenham goals. "We just didn't do it well enough in the second half and conspired to our own downfall," he admitted.
"We were delighted with the first half performance. I though we did everything that was asked and we looked, to all intents and purposes, a very good side. I don't think anyone would have foreseen what happened in the second half and it was all self inflicted.
"The second half just wasn't good enough. Sometimes when you are undone by a bit of quality you can accept it, but that wasn't the case. We shot ourselves in the foot and Tottenham punished us with their finishing.
"We are certainly hurting because when you analyse the game we certainly weren't three goals worse, but the margins of error are minimal. It wasn't just one player. There were two or three horrendous individual errors and that has cost us dearly and every goal was softer than the next."
Coyle continued: "I have obviously been trying to bolster that defensive line and whether we get the finances to try and do that, I will continue to do it.
"It wasn't helped by the skipper missing and the injury to Joey Gudjonsson, which caused us to reshuffle again. But there's no point in looking back at the first half because it's lost upon us by what happened in the second.
"We have left ourselves with Everest and a little bit more to climb, but we will give everything we can to win that second leg and restore some pride, because I was hurt by that second half.
"I was disappointing for the fans that travelled in such numbers. They were vocal and we rewarded them in the first half for that loyalty, but I felt of them after the break. I would like to thank them for that and I hope the players will pick themselves up now and go and reward them for the loyalty they have shown them."