Thursday 8 February 2018 10:35, UK
Mauricio Pochettino praised Tottenham for a "professional" performance after they beat Newport County 2-0 in an FA Cup fourth-round replay.
Although Spurs spurned chances to score more goals in the second half, Pochettino was pleased with the night's work.
"We are in the next stage and that is the most important thing," he said. "The performance was professional, it was an important win."
The Premier League side made 10 changes for the match, with Toby Alderweireld and Danny Rose returning from injury to start.
"It's important for many players to have the possibility to play," added Pochettino. "It's tough to find a place to play because the team is doing well. Today was a great opportunity for different players, like Toby, Danny and Harry Winks, to play games and compete at this level. It's completely different to training."
Asked about Lamela, who scored his first goal since September 2016, Pochettino said: "It's important, it's a very good feeling for him and he is an important player.
"He had a year out and it's never easy to come back as he was before, but he loves football and loves to train and his mentality is fantastic. He is going to recover his real level and improve because he is more mature and in a tough moment you learn a lot."
Newport were eight minutes from beating Spurs in the original meeting at Rodney Parade, with Harry Kane scoring late to force a replay.
Manager Michael Flynn said: "I am not happy but I am very proud. The work-rate and effort the players put in was fantastic. I know they missed a few chances in the second half but we kept going right until the end and should have scored.
"I thought for the first 25 minutes we were the better team, but how they scored was deflating and it took us 10 minutes to get over that. Unfortunately then the damage was done.
"The frustrating thing is that we didn't hold on at home. It was always going to be tough here, they have fantastic players and are in the top six in the Premier League every year and the Champions League."
