Cristian Romero ensured that Thomas Frank could leave Tyneside celebrating the sort of draw that managers can easily construe as moral victories.
The Tottenham captain’s stoppage-time equaliser, his second goal of the scrappiest of nights, not merely camouflaged plenty of visiting flaws but surely reinforced his manager’s recently fragile looking job security.
As Brentford’s manager Frank prided himself on achieving a decent work life balance. Granted work was demanding but he still managed eight hours sleep a night, five exercise sessions a week and regular downtime with his beloved Wilbur Smith novels.
The likable Dane and his wife also took relaxing holidays at every available opportunity but, judging by the technical area evidence Frank looks in urgent need of a de-stressing spa break. Only a few months into his Tottenham tenure and the visiting manager chewed gum with the sort of manic intensity that not even a counterpart as single minded as Eddie Howe could rival.
Frank’s increasingly animated touchline gesticulations came freighted with evident tension. Ange Postecoglou’s successor is said to be tougher than he looks though and Tottenham’s manager had duly stood firm in the face of the club’s fans’ booing of their goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario following recent mistakes.
