Page tells Slew how it is after silly red
AFTER seeing striker Jordan Slew sent off in the first half for kicking out at Fleetwood defender Stephen Jordan, Port Vale caretaker boss Robert Page admitted the Blackburn Rovers loanee had let the side down.
But despite it contributing to a defeat on the road that keeps Vale in the drop zone, Page revealed he’d still offered the youngster some words of wisdom at half-time.
It proved the pivotal moment in the game, as the visitors valiantly held out until the 80th minute before Stephen Dobbie’s penalty settled proceedings after Ryan McGivern brought down David Ball in the box.
“I’ve had a word with the lad Jordan at half-time and I’ve said to him he’s going to get centre halves that want to bully him and pinch him, even spit at him, and he has to rise above it,” said Page.
“The only way to answer people like that is to score the winning goal against them and laugh at them walking off.
“The minute he lashed out, he let himself down and I think he let everybody else down.
“I thought we were going to get something out of the game and I’m really, really disappointed – especially with the sending off.
“Ryan McGivern has come in and apologised – that’s the sort of lad he is, he’s heartbroken.
“I firmly believe that if we had 11 players on the pitch we would have come away with a point as the worst case scenario.”
The best chance of a goalless first half fell to Vale’s Michael O’Connor, who found himself free in the box, but he could only head Carl Dickinson’s deep cross over the bar.
But then Slew and Jordan tangled shortly before the break and Slew lost the plot, kicking out and earning a straight red card.
After the break Chris Neal produced a wonderful double save to deny first Dobbie’s header and then the striker’s follow up to keep the game level.
But then McGivern felled Ball, and Dobbie sent Neal the wrong way with the spot-kick.
Tom Pope rattled the Fleetwood bar as the visitors threatened, while Vale substitute Chris Birchall almost snatched an equaliser in stoppage time but nodded Adam Yates’ cross narrowly wide.
“This was a bit of a reverse from previous games when we’ve played well and not won, I don’t think we played to the levels of recent games but we’ve won the game,” said Fleetwood manager Graham Alexander.
“I think we did deserve the three points but we’ve made hard work of it.
“We got the penalty, it was a stone wall penalty, and I’m surprised the referee didn’t give it sooner – there were two or three fouls on David Ball.”