Belfast Telegraph

How Alan Gracey, the first black player in modern day Irish League football, rose above racial abuse to become one of the most loved characters in the game and his joy at once again pulling on a Glentoran shirt at 62

- BY LUKE BROWN

TOTTENHAM full-back Danny Rose has described the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) as “complete nonsense” as the backlash against the system continued to grow after Tottenham’s farcical 6-1 victory over Rochdale in an FA Cup fifth round replay.

What appeared to be a perfectly legitimate opening goal from Erik Lamela was ruled out for a minor infringeme­nt by Fernando Llorente after a two-minute wait during which fans in the stadium had little idea what was going on.

Lucas Moura was then denied a penalty after going down in the box under contact from Harrison McGahey — despite the incident being referred to VAR — before Kieran Trippier was awarded a spot-kick by VAR after referee Paul Tierney initially awarded a free-kick.

Son Heung-min’s penalty was then disallowed after he paused in his run-up. This was also after Tierney had consulted with VAR, which Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino later declared was “embarrassi­ng”.

A confused Rose later described the series of decisions as “very frustratin­g”, adding that the confusion took some of the sheen away from a convincing Spurs victory and valiant performanc­e from Rochdale, who currently sit bottom of English football’s third tier.

“It was interestin­g, very frustratin­g and just confusing more than anything,” Rose (below) said.

“That has just overshadow­ed a good performanc­e by us and a good performanc­e by Rochdale. There is no word to describe it except frustratin­g, even though we won 6-1.

“But we managed to score six goals and luckily we are not

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