Dale’s dream
‘We deserve our Wembley replay‘
with Crystal Palace. He must have regretted it in a first half which saw Rochdale belie their lowly status.
Ian Henderson considered becoming a dentist after being shown the door by Colchester but decided to carry on when Rochdale came in for him, and he gave Spurs a kick in the teeth seconds before the break by giving Dale the lead.
Top scorer Henderson had missed two decent chances earlier but made no mistake with his third effort.
The quality of the goal underlined that Hill’s men are anything but a ‘lump it forward’ team.
Mark Kitching won possession from Harry Winks on the halfway line, Stephen Humphrys swept it out to the right where Callum Camps played a first-time ball into the box for Henderson to sweep home his 15th of the season.
Spurs regrettted missed chances by Son Heung-Min and Fernando Llorente but finally stamped their class on proceedings with a similarly well-worked goal after 59 minutes from Lucas Moura on his full debut. The Brazilian, signed from Paris Saint-Germain for £25million last month, started the move and then raced to get on the end of Moussa Sissoko’s through ball, taking a touch before lifting his shot over the advancing Josh Lillis.
Spurs were dominating but Dale refused to buckle, and enjoyed good fortune when Victor Wanyama missed from a couple of yards out.
Pochettino called for the cavalry in the shape of Alli and Kane, and it paid off with the two substitutes winning and converting the penalty respectively.
Davies though had the last word to earn Dale the biggest pay day in their history.
ROCHDALE Goals: TOTTENHAM (4-2-3-1): Booked: Referee: (4-3-3): Booked: Goals:
blame him and I don’t have a problem with it. Whether it’s him, Harry Kane or Ian Henderson [Rochdale’s leading scorer], it doesn’t matter who does it.
“If he does that for England in the World Cup, I will be supporting him.”
Hill, below, may not have felt so diplomatic had Davies not equalised to give Dale their biggest-ever result. But he felt his team deserved the replay.
“It’s a feeling of reward, not relief,” he said. “The performance deserved at least the opportunity for us to go to Wembley for a replay.
“Steve Davies is the best finisher at the club so I was delighted it fell to him. I thought it was over when Harry Kane scored, but even if it had finished 2-1 to Spurs I would have said the performance was good.
“We delivered as a group of players. We showed the football world that you can be positive regardless of the opposition.
“Going to Wembley is special. I lost my dad last year and the last time I went I took him. This time I’ll take my six-year-old son Sidney – he’ll be a mascot.
“Realistically, we will get beat but we will embrace it again. We will try to win.”
Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino, who made 11 changes, could not explain why his team were held for the second time by a lower division club, following their draw in the last round at Newport. “That is football – so difficult to analyse,” he said. “When you play this type of competition, it’s one team against another team. The level of the teams is not important.
“After Harry scored we believed the tie was won. But this competition can give you a surprise. You don’t finish the game until the final whistle. The good news is we are still alive.”