Source: PA
Plastic pitch no excuse - Dawson
Michael Dawson refused to criticise Young Boys' artificial pitch after his Tottenham side only just avoided total humiliation on it on their Champions League debut.
Manager Harry Redknapp called for for AstroTurf to be banned from the competition following the 3-2 defeat at the Stade de Suisse in the first leg of Spurs' play-off round tie.
But stand-in captain Dawson insists there are no excuses for the calamitous defensive display that saw the visitors fall 3-0 down inside 28 minutes in Bern before finally getting going.
"We can't blame the pitch - we can't make excuses," the England defender said. "We were slow out of the blocks and it was disappointing.
"We trained on the pitch. So it wasn't a problem. If you concede early away from home, it is hard and it took us longer than we would have liked to recover.
"The performance wasn't good enough."
