When Tottenham drew League One strugglers Rochdale in the FA Cup fifth round, massacre was expected.
Spurs, a seasoned Premier League club and enjoying a fine run of form across all competitions, on paper, should have made easy work of Rochdale.
Spurs are third in the countries elite competition, only behind Manchester City and Liverpool and only recently thrashed Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League.
However, when they faced England’s lowest-ranked third-tier team, that counted for nothing.
This is the FA Cup and Rochdale earned a 2-2 draw.
Tottenham seemed to be heading to the quarterfinals after Harry Kane’s late penalty but fellow substitute Davies fired home to share the spoils at Spotland.
Rochdale began with intent, rewarded by Ian Henderson on the stroke of halftime.
Spurs, who also needed a replay to get past fourth-tier Newport in the previous round, dominated the second half.
On the hour mark, that dominance paid off with Lucas Moura restoring parity.
Kane and Davies added one apiece as Rochdale will now look forward to a money-spinning replay at Wembley.
Swansea City or Sheffield Wednesday awaits the winners in the quarter-finals.
Tottenham need to take this competition seriously as the club attempts to end a seriously long trophy drought.
Whilst Pochettino is keen to win the Premier League, an FA Cup is certainly a more realistic achievement at this stage for the club.
With the likes of Harry Kane attracting transfer interest from Europe’s best clubs, winning trophies of any kind will surely go some way to helping the club retain this calibre of player.
It feels like the club are at a crucial stage of their development and now is the time to win a trophy. Hopefully Spurs can get the job done comfortably in the replay and go on to win the whole competition.
