Pope nets winner as 10-man Port Vale battle back to beat Northampton

Posted Sunday, March 31, 2019 by PA

Substitute Tom Pope scored a late winner with his first touch as Port Vale beat Northampton 2-1 despite playing over half the game with 10 men.

Pope slotted home from the penalty spot in the 75th minute as Vale recovered from going a goal down and losing skipper Leon Legge to a 42nd-minute red card to take the win.

The Cobblers hit the front just five minutes in when Vale failed to deal with Jack Bridge’s cross and Sam Hoskins was perfectly positioned to find the net from close range.

Bridge then slashed a good chance wide before the visitors lost Legge to a straight red when he hauled down Andy Williams as the last man.

Vale had barely threatened up to that point but they were back on level terms at the break thanks to David Worrall, who took advantage of sloppy defending to race through on goal and beat David Cornell.

Visiting forward Ricky Miller sent two long-range efforts narrowly over at the start of the second half while Aaron Pierre fluffed his lines for the Cobblers.

The visitors won it with 15 minutes remaining when Charlie Goode was adjudged to have fouled Cristian Montano in the box and Pope, who had only just replaced Miller, stepped up to just about squeeze his spot-kick past Cornell.