After the post-war record goalscorer was released by the club, we pay tribute to a memorable Port Vale career by looking at our five favourite Pope performances.
Have a favourite memory of Tom Pope? Share your thoughts by posting a comment at the bottom of the article.
Hitting four past Steve Evans’ Rotherham United side in 2012
Vale had started the 2012-13 season in good form considering the sorry state of the club over the summer. However, this match gave the first glimpse that something special may be happening and that Pope would be centre stage. A striker who scored a mere five times the previous season nearly hit that target in a single game as he showed his former club just what they were missing. At the time Pope said: “It’s the best day of my footballing career so far.”
His hat-trick against Bristol Rovers in 2012
There were many celebrations during this game. Vale came out of their 252 day spell in administration as Paul Wildes was confirmed as chairman while Pope himself became the faster Vale player to reach twenty goals in a season. The striker himself puts it in his top performances despite being ill before the game. He told the Sentinel: “I’d felt so ill before that Bristol Rovers home game that I hadn’t even done the warm up. I’d been throwing up and had the shakes when Micky Adams asked if I was well enough to play… and I said yes. I scored a volley after 10 minutes, then a header after 20, got my hat-trick in the second-half and broke a record as quickest Vale player to 20 goals. I wasn’t feeling too bad after that.”
Breaking his goal drought with a hat-trick against Cheltenham in 2013
A game that changed the team and the striker’s form – Vale had lost four of the last six as Pope’s endured a barren run. However, he ended it in some style with a high quality hat-trick. The performance is one of the striker’s personal favourites as he told the Sentinel newspaper: “I hadn’t scored in about 11 games heading into spring in the promotion season when I got this hat-trick against Cheltenham. We’d only won one in six as well so the pressure was on when we went 2-1 down in the second half. We knew the importance of that game, it was a season-changer.”
His eight minute hat-trick against Cheltenham Town in the FA Cup in 2019
In his pomp, Pope was a match winner as this performance against Cheltenham demonstrates. In just eight minutes, he completely changes the match and is arguably unplayable as he runs riot against the Town defence. Cheltenham must have hated Pope – this hat-trick made it nine Pope goals against them. The bigger picture was that the win set up the occasion for his most memorable goal as Vale were drawn against Man City in the next round…
Scoring against Manchester City in the FA Cup 2020
It’s only fair that we end with that sensational goal against Man City. We all know the context – Pope had talked the talk about how he would dominate City defender John Stones and he backed up his words by scoring a sensational goal as Vale fans thought they were in dreamland. It’s also a quintessential Pope header. As for the celebrations… the striker may now have finished his Vale playing career but we will remember those goal celebrations for years and years to come…
Thanks for the memories Tom! We’ll miss you!
Image: Port Vale fans dress as Pope (fan-submitted image)
Have a favourite memory of Tom Pope? Share your thoughts by posting a comment at the bottom of the article.
I think all the supporters of PVFC will be sad that Tom Pope has been released. I certainly have many happy memories of his performances. The goal against Man City showed that Tom had the goal-scoring class and capability. There were times when he could probably have been a bit fitter but on the whole his performances have usually been up to the mark.
I am afraid though that times have to move on and the Manager has got to get a squad together that is capable of promotion and accordingly he has had to look to the future so far as his playing staff are concerned.
I will miss the presence of Popey and I am so grateful for his past contributions so far as Vale are concerned. There can be no doubt that the guy has earned and deserves a Testimonial Game so that fans can really show their appreciation for a fine player.