Fulham full back Kenny Tete felt it was fitting that he slotted home the winning penalty against Tottenham Hotspur last night with his new right boot – after a bizarre incident saw him leave the field to change his footwear whilst Spurs equalised.

The Dutch defender decided he would locate a replacement boot in the home dressing room after his first one split open in a challenge – but Tottenham ruthlessly exploited the numerical advantage to level matters through Richarlison after going behind to a first half own goal. Marco Silva, serving a touchline suspension for picking up three bookings in Fulham’s first three matches, insisted in his own post-match interview that ‘this will never happen again’ and Tete was grateful for the chance to make amends by coolly converting a spot-kick in front of the Hammersmith End.

The right back told FFCTV:

“I tried to block the ball and I think it is a foul. The shoe is kind of open, I can’t play anymore. I’m looking to the bench [saying], ‘What can I do?’ and they are looking to me, like ‘What can you do?’ I was like, ‘Let me run quick inside, grab it, I think I am quicker than the kit man.’ I change, come back and it was a goal. I was disappointed obviously, but then we were still fighting. We had plenty of chances to win the game, we didn’t score but it was nice that I could score the winning penalty.”

Tete was adamant that Fulham deserved to win the game having utterly dominated the first half.

“I think we started really well. We played our game. It was the right reaction to our last loss here against Brentford: everyone could see that it was one of those nights where something could happen – and we showed [that] it [can] tonight. We were really aggressive. There was only one team who deserved to win and I’m so happy that we won it. I’m proud of the team, of the [coaching] staff and I hope we can build further on this.”