MAURICIO Pochettino avoided defeat in his first game as Tottenham manager thanks to an ex-Saint.

Iago Falque - who had a short and miserable loan spell at St Mary’s in 2011/12 under Nigel Adkins – converted a penalty to give Tottenham a 3-3 draw against the Seattle Sounders at CenturyLink Field last night.

Lewis Holtby opened the scoring with a close-range header for the Premier League side after 10 minutes but Gonzalo Pineda levelled from the penalty spot before the break after a foul by Michael Dawson.

Kyle Naughton suffered a head injury as the first half wore on following a collision with Jalil Anibaba but managed to play on and see the first 45 minutes out.

Pochettino made six changes at half-time before goalkeeper Brad Friedel was beaten by a thunderbolt from Osvaldo Alonso three minutes in.

Second-half sub Roberto Soldado slotted a penalty home after he was bundled down by Chad Marshall.

Former Spurs star Clint Dempsey, who made the switch to the Sounders last year, received a cheer from both sets of supporters as he was subbed off with 20 minutes to go for Sean Okoli, who set up Tristan Bowen minutes later as Seattle went in front again.

Seconds later down at the other end, DeAndre Yedlin was penalised for handball in the box and Falque made no mistake with the resulting penalty.