Tottenham striker Harry Kane takes great delight in proving wrong the doubters who wrote him off as a one-season wonder but admits personal achievements will count for nothing if the club fall short in their title bid.
The 22-year-old scored his 22nd Premier League goal of the season against Liverpool to set a new club record but any celebrations were muted by two dropped points in the 1-1 draw at Anfield.
That allowed leaders Leicester to extend their advantage at the top to seven points with six matches remaining and despite half-a-dozen goals in his last four league games – plus one for England in their win in Germany – Kane is more concerned with the club’s ambitions than his own.
Nevertheless, he takes some satisfaction from bettering his 21-goal league tally last season, a campaign in which he scored 33 times in all competitions.
“Any day of the week you’d rather your team win rather than have personal achievements but it is a big achievement from my point of view,” said Kane, who has 25 club goals in total this season.
“There was a lot of talk at the start of the season but I have a lot of belief in my ability and I work hard in every training session to get better. Whenever anyone tells you, you can’t do something, or are not what you think you are, then you want to prove them wrong.
“I want to do the best for myself but when people are telling me I can’t do it, it makes it even better for me when I achieve what I achieve. I’ve gone ahead of last season and that’s a good feeling but it doesn’t stop here, there are six games left for me to get as many as possible. For me it is about the team getting as many points as possible. Three points are all I care about at the moment.”
For the first time in three league matches the win evaded them as Spurs had to come from behind to earn a draw at Anfield. It was not for a want of trying but they came up just short and it could end up costing them the title.
“We left a little disappointed we didn’t get the win,” said Kane. “We put it all on the line, worked as hard as we could and we couldn’t do any more. That’s football and life. Anything can happen; Leicester will do very well to win every game until the end of the season.
“We have to focus on our next game against Manchester United and look for the win.”
