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Harry Kane wants to repay Antonio Conte with victories after a pivotal team meeting with the Tottenham head coach before the striker’s record-equalling goal downed Fulham.
The England captain moved level with Jimmy Greaves’ all-time scoring record of 266 goals for Spurs after his pinpoint first-half finish proved the difference in a 1-0 win at Craven Cottage.
While a deadly finish will go down in the record books for Kane, victory moved Conte’s side within three points of the Premier League’s top four, albeit having played a game more.
After a 2-0 defeat to Arsenal and a 4-2 loss at Manchester City, Kane revealed Spurs players held discussions with Conte and those conversations paid off in London on Monday.
The Tottenham talisman told Sky Sports: “[Conte]’s been through a difficult time outside of football with his personal life. Being part of a team isn’t just the players, it’s the manager, the staff and being there for each other.
“We want to win every game for him. He puts so much passion into every training session. And we want to repay him with victories.
“We had a good meeting amongst ourselves with the manager in the week just to talk and get back. We are going to keep fighting, like the manager.
“He is a passionate manager and we just have to keep working hard for him.”
Spurs were largely up against it in the first half against Fulham, who missed the chance to leapfrog Tottenham into fifth, as Hugo Lloris denied Bobby De Cordova-Reid, Willian and Harrison Reed.
However, Kane’s killer instinct was enough to secure all three points and he hailed his side for returning to the basics that saw them qualify for the Champions League last season.
“We dug deep, it was a tough week but this is a good 1-0 win,” he added.
“It’s been difficult, whenever you give away a two-goal lead at half-time [against City] it’s always harder to take. We wanted to get back to basics, clean sheets are really important for us if we’re going to stay in the Champions League spots.
“We had to be compact, suffer together at times and we knew we’d get chances. We went back to what got us into the Champions League last year. It was a good sign.”
