Pope backs up his Stones attack but City enjoy the last laugh
Tom Pope lived up to his promise of scoring against John Stones but it was the Manchester City defender who had the last laugh here. The Port Vale striker had joked that he would score 40 goals a season if he played against Stones every week – and after the game revised that to “more like 50” – but while he is unlikely to forget the mo- ment he found the net at the home of the Premier League champions, it was City who had cruised into the fourth round with relative ease by the end.
Pope had previously criticised Stones for being “weak as p---” and having “absolutely zero aggression”, but the League Two club, despite emerging with their reputation enhanced, were ultimately overpowered by the strength of the FA Cup holders. City invited the Vale players into their dressing room at the end of an entertaining game and, whatever tensions may exist between Stones and Pope, that did not prevent others from having a laugh about it.
“Manchester City couldn’t have treated us any better. They invited the players in after the game and they have had a bit of a laugh, especially about Popey and John Stones, as you can imagine,” John Askey, the Vale manager, said. “I was lucky enough to be invited in by Pep [Guardiola] for a glass of wine, which shows what a gentleman he is. It has been a really proud day for myself and the football club.”
City’s team cost £260 million and were captained by a World Cup winner. Askey’s side were a hotchpotch of free transfers, loanees and youth graduates. The champions scored five times past Premier League counterparts Watford in the first 18 minutes here earlier in the season. Port Vale managed to get to the 20-minute mark before their goal was breached, but any expectation of that being the prelude to a sudden deluge for the champions was punctured when Pope cancelled out Oleksandr Zinchenko’s deflected strike. “I was waiting for someone to pinch me and wake me up,” Askey said. “I thought I was dreaming.”
Goals from Sergio Aguero, teenager Taylor Harwood-Bellis, his first for City, and the impressive Phil Foden eventually took the game away from Port Vale, but you can be sure that Pope will be dining out on his goal for a while to come.
The headlines coming into the game had been dominated by Pope’s past criticism of Stones, whom he had torn into on Twitter after an error-strewn display for England in their 3-1 Nations League defeat by Holland last June. But Pope proved he was not all mouth with a quite brilliantly taken header to cap a fine Vale move. Jake Taylor worked the ball out to James Gibbons on the right and the defender in turn fed David Amoo, who left Angelino trailing in a foot race. Amoo’s cross was crying out to be attacked and there was Pope, all 34 years of him, darting in front of Harwood-Bellis to direct a sublime header into the far corner.
“He might be on Twitter tonight,” Askey said of his striker. “I hope he doesn’t get himself in trouble. The pleasing thing is it gives our supporters something to cheer about. We brought 8,000 and it could have been double that. I wish he [Pope] didn’t do it because sometimes he can wind the opposition up, but if he goes and does that you can’t argue. Tom tries to do it in a humorous way and it probably causes him more problems than the club.”
Despite his manager’s pleas, Pope could not resist poking more fun at Stones after the game. “Sorry I can’t reply to everyone, it’s gone mental!” he tweeted. “I’d just like to say I was bang out of order to say I’d score 40 a season... it’s more like 50.”
City had taken the lead when Zinchenko’s shot deflected in off Leon Legge, and restored their advantage when Aguero turned in Foden’s cross from a lovely chipped pass by Ilkay Gundogan. Harwood-Bellis got the final touch to Stones’s shot for City’s third early in the second half, before Foden claimed the fourth when he finished a sweeping move after Angelino had squared Gundogan’s raking pass.
Vale substitute Tom Conlon should have scored after Pope closed down a pass from Stones, but the visitors were indebted to Scott Brown for making a number of fine saves.