Tottenham players have apologised and pledged to reimburse fans who travelled to watch Sunday’s 6-1 humiliation at Newcastle.

The North London team went 5-0 down in the opening 21 minutes on Sunday.

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy described the team’s performance as “wholly unacceptable” and sacked interim head coach Cristian Stellini after less than a month in charge.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Spurs squad admitted the performance “wasn’t good enough” and vowed to “give everything to put things right”, before offering fans to help cover the cost of the tickets to the game.

They said: “As a squad, we understand your frustration, your anger. Sunday wasn’t good enough. We know words aren’t enough in situations like this but believe us, a defeat like this hurts.

“We appreciate your support, home and away, and with this in mind we would like to reimburse fans with the cost of their match tickets from St James’ Park.

“We know this does not change what happened on Sunday and we will give everything to put things right, starting against Manchester United on Thursday evening when, again, your support will mean everything to us. Together – and only together – can we move things forward.”

Former midfielder Ryan Mason, 31, has been placed in charge of the first team for the second time, having taken charge of the squad for the remainder of the 2020/21 season following the departure of Jose Mourinho in April 2021.

Tottenham are fifth, six points behind third-placed Newcastle and Manchester United in fourth, who have games in hand.

Stellini took responsibility for Sunday’s result, describing the first 25 minutes as the worst he had ever seen in football.

Captain Hugo Lloris immediately apologised to fans for the “embarrassing” defeat at St James’ Park during his post-match interview, acknowledging the team showed a “lack of pride”.

Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust subsequently called for decisive action to “give us all some hope and something to get behind at the end of a truly awful season”.

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The trust also suggested fans “still deserve a refund” for Sunday’s disastrous display after the announcement dismissing Stellini, who was also part of Antonio Conte’s backroom staff.

“All supporters will now want to get behind Ryan in his attempt to rescue our season,” they added in a statement.