He acknowledged Villa’s dominance but felt Spurs failed to impose their style and missed opportunities to control the game.
Postecoglou emphasized the need for his players to respond positively as they shift focus back to the Premier League.
He stated post-game: “It’s a disappointing result, cup competition. We wanted to progress, we didn’t do that tonight – that’s disappointing. We didn’t get off to a great start. It doesn’t help when you are playing away from home, especially a place like Villa, to concede so early, it gives them momentum and confidence, gets the crowd going. We were struggling to stay in the game. Having said that we had a big chance to equalise which could have settled things down for us.
“Second-half was more even, we got better control of the game. We had to open up which allowed some transition moments. I felt like we were controlling the game a lot better and the second goal makes it even more difficult. We kept fighting, got the goal we needed. It just wasn’t enough in the end.
On the result being damaging, he added: “It’s not damaging for me, it’s obviously disappointing for us in terms of our objectives. But for two-and-a-half months, this small group of players have given everything in multiple competitions. I think they’ve been outstanding. We had 11 first-team players missing today.
“We started with four teenagers, a 21 year old goalkeeper coming to one of the best teams in the country, away from home. After playing the best team in the country on Thursday night. After playing a Premier League game last Sunday, playing a Europa game (before that). The same group of players. No rotation. And they’ve been doing this since the middle of November. I think they’ve given everything they can and I’ve got so much respect and admiration for the players and how they’ve gone about that. We get a couple of midweeks off now, great for them to recover. We’ll get some players back which is also great for this group that they’ll get some help. And we move on.”