David Moyes says Sunderland found Spurs tough but were never out of it

Sunderland manager David Moyes was pleased that his side made a game of it against Tottenham, despite being under the cosh for large portions of Sunday's 1-0 defeat at White Hart Lane.

The Black Cats had to withstand a barrage of attacks from their north London hosts, who had 31 attempts in the game - more than any other side has managed this season.

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"We had to hang on for a long time in the game," Moyes told Sky Sports after the match. "I wanted us to play much better, but Tottenham's quality forced us to be the way we were. We found it tough against them, but we hung in, we made some chances ourselves, and maybe we were a bit unlucky.

"I think possibly the best chance of the game was for Steven Pienaar in the first half, and then we went down to ten men - it was tough at the end, but we still tried to make a chance or two.

"It was a tough game for us, Tottenham had most of the ball, we had to defend for long periods, but at least we gave ourselves a chance of winning it - we were never out of the game today."

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The performance was an improvement on Monday's 3-0 defeat to Everton, but Moyes is still aware that it's early days in his tenure at Sunderland and is expecting the team to get better in time.

"I think we got improvements in as much as we kept in it, you know. But I'm still trying to see better play with the ball, I'm trying to see us being more aggressive when we have it and trying to play better, but we're just at the start. We've got to start picking up some points, but it's the start of a long journey and we're hopeful we'll get better."

The winning goal came for Tottenham when a Dele Alli knockdown was not cleared, allowing Harry Kane to tuck home.

"It was a gift in the end," said Moyes. "In truth, the boys had done fine, they'd defended really well, they'd blocked everything that had come in, they'd headed things out, but, you know, that sort of lapse in concentration or making sure that you're there all the time and tuned in let us down today.

"They're resolute, they'll stick at it, they'll do their best to be in the game all the time, but we have to play a lot better."

 Moyes also refused to go into details on the decision to withdraw Patrick van Aanholt from the starting line-up.

The full-back was replaced by Jason Denayer in the starting XI, with television footage appearing to show the player's surprise at the decision.

However, Moyes turned down the opportunity to elaborate on his decision, saying: "For medical reasons, we chose to withdraw Pat."

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