WE DESERVED A REPLAY
TOM Pope had mixed emotions after Port Vale came desperately close to taking Sunderland to a replay as they were eventually beaten 2-1 at Vale Park in yesterday’s FA Cup first-round clash.
The Valiants were in danger of a hammering when George Honeyman’s goal inside the first minute was followed by a second from Lynden Gooch on 19 minutes.
But Neil Aspin’s tactical change on the half-hour paid off as Vale looked much better once they switched from 3-5-2 to 4-4-2 as midfielder Manny Oyeleke replaced wing-back Theo Vassell.
They pulled a goal back five minutes later as Pope collected Oyeleke’s pass before curling the ball across keeper Jon Mclaughlin and inside the far post. An equaliser wouldn’t come, although the Valiants were excellent after the break.
They couldn’t believe referee Anthony Backhouse had waved play on when Luke Hannant seemed to be brought down by Jack Baldwin in the area on 62 minutes, but almost forced an equaliser anyway when Pope and Ricky Miller were denied in a goalmouth scramble in the final stages.
PORT VALE
Pope said: “I thought for 30 minutes we were awful and then we changed the shape and I thought for the last hour we were by far the better team. On another day we would have got something out of it. I haven’t seen the penalty (incident) back, but from where I was it was a stonewall penalty.
“But you can’t afford to give a team like Sunderland a two goal start.
“There is a chance against a team like Sunderland that you can concede a couple of goals late on when tiredness kicks in. But I think to start the game so badly was poor. We had the atmosphere, the cameras were here, and we wanted to put up a fight and certainly in the first 20 minutes give them something to think about.
“But we didn’t. We never got going. It wasn’t until Manny came on and we changed our shape that we started to look effective.”
Oyeleke’s return to fitness after a hamstring injury is great news for Vale because he has been hugely influential in midfield since he was recruited on a free from Aldershot in the summer.
But Vale had been unbeaten in their previous five games without him and would have expected to start this game much better, even