Hill’s happy for Alli to be a World Cup fall guy

ROCHDALE boss Keith Hill refused to let Dele Alli spoil his FA Cup fairytale and insisted: “I hope he does that in the

World Cup.”

The Tottenham midfielder, booked for diving at Liverpool last month, tumbled to the ground in a challenge with defender Harrison Mcgahey.

Harry Kane converted the resulting penalty only for Rochdale’s Steve Davies to find a stoppage-time leveller and earn League One’s bottom club a moneyspinning replay at Wembley.

Hill said: “I’m led to believe he was looking for it, but why not? If players feel there is an opportunity to be gained then brilliant, I don’t hold it against him. I don’t blame him and I don’t have a problem with it.

“Whether it’s him, Harry Kane or Ian Henderson, it doesn’t matter who does it. If he does that for England in the World Cup this summer then I will definitely be supporting him.

“It was a feeling of reward, not relief, because the performance deserved at least the opportunity for us to go to Wembley for a replay. The first half was magnificent in how we took the game to the opposition.

“It was a test, but I’ve always wanted to do that against a Premier League team and manager – why not take them on and try to win? It could have been football suicide but I thought we gained their respect and to score the goal we did was tremendous.

“I thought the players were magnificent.”

Spurs needed a replay to get past League Two Newport in the previous round and boss Mauricio Pochettino said: “That is football, that is football. It’s so difficult to explain, to judge, to analyse. The good news is that we are still alive.”