Mason on his first match in charge of Spurs - and Kane prospects for Wembley
Ryan Mason insists he did not find his first outing as interim boss too daunting and praised his players for the way they fought back from a half-time deficit to beat Southampton 2-1 on Wednesday night.
Goals from Gareth Bale and Heung-Min Son - the latter a last-minute penalty - secured all three points to bring some calm at the end of a turbulent week in which Jose Mourinho was fired and the European Super League project collapsed.
"It wasn't difficult," said the 29-year-old, who has been put in charge until the end of the season.
"All my energy has been going into helping the players to perform tonight and most importantly get a win and thankfully we've done that.
"It took us a bit of time but we managed to get control of the game and managed to sustain attacks and that was key today because they are a very dangerous team on the counter. I thought we deserved the win in the end.
"I'm so proud of the boys. They had so much energy and bravery, especially after the first 20 to 30 minutes. Southampton came out of the blocks - they were good. We showed belief and stuck to the plan so full credit because the energy and commitment was great.
"Southampton built up momentum and Hugo [Lloris] pulled out some excellent saves early on. We had full control second half and we were creating chances.
"At half time it was about giving the players confidence. We've only had a short amount of time but for me the biggest thing was commitment, energy and bravery to do good things and express ourselves and take risks at times.
"Tonight was important for many things, the change in manager, a lot has gone on at the club in the last 48 hours and it was important to get back to winning ways. The performance and energy were outstanding."
Mason will lead the team out at Wembley on Sunday when they contest the Carabao Cup final against Man City. Whether Harry Kane will be there remain to be seen, however. He was missing after picking up another knock in last week's 2-2 draw at Everton and it will touch and go.
"I'm really not sure," Mason said when asked whether Kane would be involved. "All I do know is that Harry's doing all he can to be out on the pitch. We're going to take it day by day and obviously me, like every other Tottenham fan, hopes that he's going to be available, but at the moment I'm really not sure."
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