Ruben Amorim has insisted that he will “stick with my beliefs” after watching his injury-hit Manchester United side endure a 12th Premier League defeat of the campaign that leaves them 15th in the table. A first-half goal from James Maddison, who celebrated by putting his finger to his lips in response to criticism he received last week from Roy Keane, sealed Tottenham’s first win at home in the Premier League since they beat Aston Villa here in November. On his return from injury, Guglielmo Vicario produced a brilliant save to deny an Alejandro Garnacho shot in the second half. It meant that United have now lost the most times after 25 games since they were relegated in 1974, with only 12 points separating them from the bottom three. But while Amorim refused to criticise his side’s efforts after Kobbie Mainoo, Manuel Ugarte and Amad Diallo were all ruled out with injury, he acknowledged that results must improve quickly. “You grow and you learn a lot of things. We just need to face it and not run away, that is my feeling,” the United manager said. “Today will hurt, it is a tough pain to lose so many games, but then you can change things in a week. I have a lot of problems, my job is so, so hard here. But I stick with my beliefs. We need to stop focusing on the big picture. Just focus on the next game. Let’s do everything to finish the season well and then think about the big picture. That is our goal. In this moment it’s about not even looking at the table or the schedule. That is my part.” The defender Victor Lindelöf was the only substitute on United’s bench who had made a first‑team appearance and Amorim admitted losing three key players had not been ideal preparation. “At the beginning of this week we tried to train but day by day we were losing players. I don’t want to use that as an excuse because a lot of teams are suffering like that. Sometimes you have to face up to the challenge.” More than 1,000 Spurs supporters gathered before kick-off in a protest against the chairman, Daniel Levy, that was organised by the Change for Tottenham action group. But while some remained after the full-time whistle to take part in a planned sit‑in protest, the numbers were significantly reduced. “I thought the fans were great and they got behind the team. They contributed to us getting the result we needed,” said Ange Postecoglou, whose side have now moved up to 12th. “It’s unacceptable that we are in the position that we are but the circumstances have dictated that. Today was an important game if we are going to start that process of improving. We certainly feel that we have an opportunity to climb up the table.” Maddison admitted that he had used criticism from Keane as motivation after the former United captain questioned his ability to revive Tottenham’s fortunes and said that “he got relegated with Leicester and he’ll get relegated with Spurs”. “I hope there’s a certain few that enjoyed me being the match-winner today,” Maddison told Sky Sports. “There was a little bit of outside noise this week. People will have their opinions. No one is more critical of me than myself. The gaffer prefers when we are in our own bubble, but it’s difficult with social media, you see this stuff. “To be fair to the boys who’ve been fit all season, we don’t want to make excuses, but the last few months have been really difficult. These lads who have relentlessly been going every three days, it’s nice to be an injured player coming back to take the pressure off them.”