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| Dele Alli celebrates scoring Tottenham's opening goal in the 1-1 draw with West Brom |
DELE ALLI continued his remarkable rags-to-riches fairytale with the type of finish of which Harry Kane would be proud.
But the Spurs and England centre-forward has urged the 19-year-old not to let his whirlwind season with club and country go to his head.
A year ago Alli was in an MK Dons side being beaten 1-0 at home by Chesterfield in front of 5,500 fans in League One.
Now he is an England regular with a stunning goal against France in the bag and three Premier League goals to his name.
It is a path Kane experienced himself only last season when he came from nowhere to stamp his name at White Hart Lane.
And Kane urged his team-mate not to get carried away, saying: "He is probably going through a whirlwind and everything is happening so quickly. He probably hasn't had a chance to kind of sit back and realise what he has done.
"Playing for England and scoring for England at Wembley is kind of similar to what I did last year. But he has to stay focused. We have good coaches here and good management staff.
"I am sure he will keep his feet on the floor because there is a long way to go this season and he wants to keep getting better. I will keep telling him that too, of course.
"He is a great player and has worked hard to get where he is. But there is still a long way to go, he has to keep working hard and can't get ahead of himself.
"But I know he will keep working on the training field to try and get better and that is what we want."
Fittingly, Roy Hodgson was back at The Hawthorns to see Alli's latest handiwork as he planted a fine volley past Boaz Myhill from Toby Alderweireld's inch-perfect ball from the halfway line.
"I knew where Aldy would play the ball," said Alli. "It's one we use a lot, between their defenders and the goalkeeper, because it's hard to defend.
"It was a great delivery and basically I just swung at it, telling myself I had to keep it down. And it felt good to catch it that well."
Spurs boss Maurico Pochettino raved: "He has unbelievable potential. He is very young but in every game he has shown his quality and he is good enough to play in the starting XI.
He is 19 but for me 19, 18, 17 or 30 is just the same. He is a very mature boy for 19. It is about performance and desire and hunger. It is not about age or names.
"It is a long way until next summer but you have to build your game and your performance to try to show the national team manager that you deserve to go [to Euro 2016]."
Spurs have not lost in the league since the opening day and it is now their longest run without defeat since a 14-game streak that ended in March 1985.
"It is very important because from the beginning of the season we wanted to show a very strong mentality and the team after 15 games is 14 games unbeaten and that speaks about our mentality and just how strong we are," said Pochettino.
The visitors were pushed to the limit by an organised Albion side who fought for every blade of grass and for whom James McClean shone. It was McClean's bullet header from Darren Fletcher's cross following a sublime move that gave the Baggies a more than deserved point and was the 26-year-old's first top-flight goal since January 2013.
Pochettino felt McClean was a little lucky to remain on the field following a late lunge on Mousa Dembele that earned him a yellow card from Jonathan Moss.
"From the dug-out it was worthy of an orange card," he joked. "The action was maybe orange, maybe red and maybe more than red. It was a very strong action but that is football and always it is down to the referee to assess."
Albion have made capital gains in taking five points from three of London's finest in Arsenal, West Ham and Spurs and all from losing positions. It is a run that has seen them hold 13th spot in the Premier League and keep a seven-point cushion on the bottom three.
Their assistant Dave Kemp believes his club have been unfairly criticised for their style, although a crowd of 23,600 was at least 3,000 down on where Albion's hierarchy would like it.
"If you play poorly people criticise the football but if you play well people think, 'Perhaps we are as not as bad as we are being told'," said Kemp.
"They cheered us off, we scored a great goal, had other chances, shots, crosses. There was lots of action.
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| West Brom assistant coach Dave Kemp reckons his team has been unfairly criticised for their style |
"It doesn't happen overnight, there is a bit of a sea-change, but the players are buying into it and the crowd are as well."
Solomon Rondon "ran the Tottenham back four ragged - "as he did to Arsenal," Kemp pointed out - but the Venezuelan missed two glorious chances to give Albion the spoils while Hugo Lloris executed a save that had opposite number Myhill drooling in denying Jonas Olsson.
"I think I have seen the best save I have ever seen in real life," said Myhill. "It was unbelievable."
McClean's lung-busting performance is a hallmark of this Tony Pulis-drilled Albion side, making a mockery of a £1.5million switch from League One Wigan in the summer.
"He has been outstanding. When we signed him I don't think people thought he would be a major player at West Brom but he is," said Kemp.
WEST BROM (4-1-4-1): Myhill 6; Dawson 7, McAuley 6, Olsson 7, Brunt 7; Evans 6; Sessegnon 6 (Gardner 44, 6), Morrison 6, Fletcher 6, McClean 8, Rondon 8. Booked: Morrison, Gardner, McClean. Goal: Alli 15.
TOTTENHAM (4-2-3-1): Lloris 8; Walker 6, Alderweireld 6, Vertonghen 5, Rose 6; Dier 6, Alli 8 (N'Jie 80); Eriksen 6, Dembele 7, Lamela 5 (Son 65, 6); Kane 7. Booked: Dembele, Kane. Goal: McClean 39.
Referee: Jonathan Moss.
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