Mousa Dembele says Tottenham have had a useful reminder that they cannot underestimate lower-league opponents in the FA Cup after avoiding a “scandal” against Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday.

Gareth Ainsworth’s visitors, who play in League Two, were 2-0 up at half time at White Hart Lane. And, while Spurs came back in the second half, Wycombe went 3-2 ahead in the 83rd minute.

Dele Alli and Heung-Min Son saved the day for the Lilywhites and secured a 4-3 victory that booked their place in the fifth round – but Dembele feels lessons must be learned.

“I think we didn’t start very concentrated,” said the Belgian midfielder, who entered the fray as a second-half substitute. “They worked hard and we have to respect them for what they did to us. I’m happy we won because it would have been a scandal.

“We want to win this FA Cup, that’s the most important thing. We were warned in this game and hopefully in the next one we will start much better.

“It’s not easy. They come here and they’re very motivated - and for us as well it’s a bit different. But of course, for us, the FA Cup is very important.

“Sometimes we think ‘this game’s going to be ok, we’re going to win 5-0 or 3-0’ but it’s not like this.

“We all know this already. We’ve experienced it in the past, that it’s not easy to play these kinds of teams.”

Dembele insists there is no risk of complacency when Spurs visit the Premier League’s basement boys Sunderland tomorrow night.

“That’s the Premier League, it’s totally different I think,” he said. “Every team in the Premier League has a lot of quality in their team so we’re going to respect them from the beginning, of course.

“We’ve been playing well in the last few [league] games. The last one [at Manchester City] was a bit more difficult for us but we have a positive feeling and it’s not easy to play away from home of course, so we will be 100 per cent motivated.”

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