London: Ryan Mason believes Tottenham have overcome the disappointment of last week’s Cup failures and are back on track in the race to qualify for the Champions League.

Mauricio Pochettino’s side face QPR at Loftus Road this weekend with a Premier League top four spot their sole remaining target after exiting the Europa League at the hands of Fiorentina three days before Sunday’s League Cup final defeat against Chelsea.

Tottenham’s bruised morale was at least partially restored with the 3-2 midweek victory over Swansea that ensured Spurs kept pace with their main rivals towards the head of the table.

That result left them in seventh place, six points behind Manchester United who lie fourth, but having played a game less.

And with Louis van Gaal’s side on FA Cup duty on Monday, victory over struggling QPR on Saturday will close the gap and give Pochettino’s team another timely lift.

It may take more than a couple of wins to get the 2-0 Wembley defeat against Chelsea completely out of the system, but young midfielder Mason believes the hard-fought victory over Swansea was a major step in the right direction.

“The win against Swansea was massive after Wembley and going out of two competitions in the last six days, it was huge for us to get back to winning ways,” Mason said.

“Wembley was disappointing. We felt during the game we were a bit naive at times but it’s a learning curve and hopefully we’ll get the chance to play in more finals and to win at Wembley.”

Mason struck his first Premier League goal against Swansea while Nacer Chadli took his season tally to eight league goals, and the Belgium winger is targeting double figures.

“I have much better statistics than last season and I want to improve, I want to be a better player,” he said.

“I’ve played the last two games, played 90 minutes and I feel better and better every week and I think there is more to come.

“I want to score more than 10 goals and help the team to win games. I’m very happy to score and it’s a good feeling to win again.

“We had to win, we had to bounce back and we did that. That was most important.”

Tottenham face a reunion with Sandro who left White Hart Lane to join QPR at the start of the season.

Meanwhile, West Bromwich Albion manager Tony Pulis has backed under-fire goalkeeper Ben Foster ahead of his return to Aston Villa four days on from a costly error in the local derby.

Villa won Tuesday’s league meeting with Albion in dramatic fashion after Foster gave away a last minute penalty when he needlessly fouled Matthew Lowton, with the spot kick converted by Christian Benteke.

England international Foster took to Twitter afterwards to apologise for his performance.

But Pulis has refused to rule out giving Foster the chance to earn an immediate reprieve in the FA Cup quarter-final clash at Villa Park on Saturday.

West Brom’s reserve goalkeeper Boaz Myhill had been Pulis’s first pick for their cup ties, however they have been nursing him back to fitness after he suffered a finger injury against Birmingham in the fourth round.

Myhill found himself among the substitutes in the previous round against West Ham, with Foster selected and Pulis admits he now has a tough decision to make.