Vale star hate rap
PORT VALE forward Tom Pope has plans to “vigorously defend” an FA charge over an allegedly anti-Semitic tweet.
The club said the player would strongly deny the claims after he was charged with an “aggravated breach” of FA rules.
The 34-year-old has already served two one-game bans for making “improper” comments on Twitter.
The latest more serious charge follows a tweet in early January linking the Rothschilds to “every bank on the planet”.
Pope later deleted the message and insisted he was unaware it could be perceived as anti-Semitic.
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JOSE MOURINHO was brought in to deliver trophies – and his magic touch kept Tottenham on course for Wembley.
Heung-min Son struck a late winner from the penalty spot to decide a thrilling FA Cup tie which Southampton hardly deserved to lose, but Mourinho has a knack of getting big wins.
The Spurs boss was bold with his substitutions, and Dele Alli played a big role from the bench, as did new signing
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Gedson Fernandes, who also shone as Spurs staged a dramatic late fightback.
Mourinho has always taken the domestic cups seriously, winning the FA Cup with Chelsea and lifting the League Cup four times during his spells at Stamford Bridge and at Manchester United.
Forget the winter break, there is no rest for winners, and Mourinho was brought to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium to deliver the trophies which had eluded Mauricio Pochettino.
That explains why Tottenham went full strength. Giovani Lo
Celso was out with a thigh injury, and that prompted Mourinho to tweak his line-up and also go with a back three.
Southampton’s only big change was to bring in Angus Gunn for current No.1 keeper Alex McCarthy, as it was clear that manager Ralph Hasenhuttl wanted a decent cup run.
And it was the visitors who started brightly, with Nathan Redmond and Danny Ings going close early on, but then Spurs took a 12th-minute lead.
Ryan Sessegnon made a break down the left and was about to pull the trigger and shoot when
Saints defender Jack Stephens made a last-ditch tackle.
The ball broke kindly for Tanguy Ndombele and his shot hit Stephens and was deflected into the net.
It was a lucky break for Tottenham but, to Saints’ credit, they did not allow their heads to drop.
James Ward-Prowse’s ball down the line found Ings, the in-form striker smashed a shot against the bar, and then Ryan Bertrand was also denied by a smart save from Hugo Lloris.
And Southampton got their reward after 34 minutes when they drew level. Nathan Redmond’s shot was pushed out by Lloris and there was Shane Long to follow up and fire home the rebound from close range.
This was quickly developing into a top quality cup tie, but the visitors suffered a real blow when Ward-Prowse suffered a nasty gash after Sessegnon’s challenge, with the makeshift right-back taken off on a stretcher. Thankfully, there were no broken bones.
Southampton substitute Jannik Vestergaard then saw his header pushed over by Lloris as the visitors looked in control.