Pre-season friendly: Ebbsfleet United 3 Tottenham Hotspur XI 1

A Tottenham Hotspur XI suffered a 3-1 defeat at Ebbsfleet United on Saturday, but under-23 boss Wayne Burnett saw plenty of positives from the match.

Shayon Harrison found the net for Spurs at Stonebridge Road, but the National League side claimed a two-goal victory.

Ebbsfleet held the game as a memorial for their old captain Paul McCarthy, who passed away following a heart attack in February, and made a great start.

Darren McQueen opened the scoring after 18 minutes, turning in a cross from ex-Dagenham & Redbridge left-back Jack Connors.

McQueen looked good against his old club, but Fleet had to settle for a 1-0 lead at the break despite hitting the post through Jack Powell.

Seven minutes after the interval and Ebbsfleet doubled their advantage, as Luke Coulson’s strike found the bottom corner.

Harrison helped Tottenham reply almost immediately, however, with an excellent effort from the edge of the area.

Spurs nearly managed an equaliser in the latter stages too, as Shilow Traceu found the net against his former club, but the offside flag denied him.

And Ebbsfleet made the most of the decision by winning a penalty following a handball by Japhet Tanganga, with Danny Kedwell drilling home from the spot.

Burnett spoke to the official club website after the game and discussed the areas of improvement for Spurs.

“I think there were some positives, some nice play at times. We have to do better at both ends,” said the ex-Dagenham boss.

“Certainly we have to defend better in our box and be a bit better in their box as well, but it’s game one so we’ll take the positives, get back on the training field and carry out some more work.

“It was a test but if these boys want to be successful footballers they’re going to encounter these types of players and they’re going to have to deal with it. We have to start being accountable and responsible for ourselves and each other.

“It’s a fine line (the way the game went) and, yes, we want to win and the result is important in every game, but we were looking at performances, trying to get everyone as much game time as we can and trying to come through with no-one injured and we did that.

“We’ve still got a long time until the start of the season and we’ve got some time to prepare. There were certainly some positives to come out of today but now we’ve got to get on the training field and do some hard work.”

Tottenham Hotspur XI: De Bie (Freeman 72), Eyoma (Lock 72), Bennetts, Amos, C Maghoma (c), Tanganga, Harrison, Pritchard (Roles 61), Loft (Hinds 69), S Shashoua (Duncan 46), Tracey.