Vale boss Adam-ant he’ll stand by squad
MICKY ADAMS vowed to keep the faith with his under-achieving players despite three home defeats in a week.
Gary Roberts’ winner, 20 seconds into the second half, took newly promoted Chesterfield fifth in the table.
Vale, meanwhile, slipped to 18th, one point outside the drop zone, but Adams is staying calm.
Adams said: “Three home defeats on the bounce is never easy, it’s never nice for our supporters and my thinking is all over the place at this moment.
“I’ve given everybody an opportunity so far this season and I feel we’re underachieving.
“But we will work with the players we’ve got, like we’ve always done at this club. I’ve not lost faith in the players.
“A football season has its peaks and troughs. At this moment we’re going through a trough and we’ll have to work our way through it.
“The doubters and the cynics will be having a field day, but we’ve got to be broad shouldered and accept that.”
Vale were aiming to avoid the indignity of a third home defeat in a week after a 2-0 defeat to Notts County was followed by Tuesday’s Capital One Cup exit at the hands of Cardiff.
But Adams’ men got off to the worst possible start when a Roberts curler hit the post and Eoin Doyle was on hand to tap the Spireites into a tenthminute lead.
Vale responded positively with Tom Pope rattling the post following Ben Williamson’s throughball on 23 minutes.
And – four minutes from the interval – the men from the Potteries drew level as Mark Marshall burst into the box and blasted an unstoppable drive past Tommy Lee.
But disaster struck for the home side within a minute of the restart as Roberts embarked on a mazy dribble, jinked his way into the box and fired Chesterfield back in-front with a precise low finish.
Sam Morsy almost sealed it against his former club on the hour mark with a 25yarder that struck the crossbar.
And – despite their captain Ian Evatt being sent off for a second bookable offence six minutes from time – the Spireites clung on and were worthy winners.
Manager Paul Cook said: “We’ve been playing well since the start of the season and it’s a great credit to the players.
“They deserve all the praise tonight because, to a man, they stood up to a very strong test.
“You’ve got to be ugly sometimes.We are a passing team, but our lads can dig in as well and they proved that.
“We’ve got a lot of injuries, but we’ve been together for 20 months now, we’re quite an honest group and we work hard.”