Ange Postecoglou insisted that his actions were "misinterpreted" after appearing to cup his ear to Tottenham Hotspur fans in a 1-0 defeat at Chelsea.
It was another difficult night for the Australian head coach as Enzo Fernandez's second-half header condemned Spurs to their 16th Premier League defeat of the season.
In a typical full-bloodied London derby - there were 10 yellow cards brandished - Postecoglou’s apparent gesture to his own supporters came when Pape Sarr rifled in what appeared an equaliser, only for it to be ruled out for a foul in the build-up following a VAR review.
“Jeez mate, it’s incredible how things get interpreted,” Postecoglou said afterwards.
“We’d just scored, I just wanted to hear them [the fans] cheer because we’d been through a tough time and I thought it was a cracking goal. I wanted them to get really excited.
“I felt at that point we could potentially go on and win the game. I just felt momentum was on our [side].
“It doesn’t bother me, it’s not the first time they [the fans] have booed my substitutions or my decisions, that’s fine. They’re allowed to do that, but we’d just scored a goal, just scored an equaliser, I was just hoping we could get some excitement.
“If people want to read into it that somehow I’m trying to make a point about something, like I said, we’d been through a tough time, but I just felt there was a bit of a momentum shift there. If they get really behind the lads, I thought we had the momentum to finish on top of them [Chelsea].”
For Postecoglou, Thursday night's loss also provided the Australian with an unwanted record - he is the first ever Spurs head coach to lose each of his first four league matches against Chelsea while in charge of the club.
Ever the pragmatist, he was honest in his assessment after watching Spurs fail to score for a third time in four Premier League matches.
"It's a difficult night, a tight game and not an easy place to come," he added. "We had to work hard to stay in the game, we let in a disappointing goal, then fought our way back into the game but weren't able to get anything out of it.
"It is still a work in progress, the first time we had the whole group in together and in the final third we could've been a bit cleaner with our football but for the most part we handled it quite well.
"It's a tough ask coming here, there was still enough there tonight to show the lads are getting back to the level we need."