BROWN SHRUGS OFF THE BOOS
PORT Vale boss Michael Brown was met with a chorus of boos after his side slipped to defeat at Chesterfield but he is adamant they will come good.
The Valiants dominated the opening half an hour but failed to make the most of their possession or multiple corners before two goals in five minutes from Kristian Dennis and Jordan Sinnott sealed the hosts’ first win of the season.
But Brown, whose decision to replace Ben Whitfield in the second half was also jeered from the away end, refused to be too downhearted at coming away with nothing.
“There certainly are some positives,” said Brown. “We’re all disappointed to lose.
“We’ve both got new teams and new systems to fit into.
“We had lots of corners and lots of the ball but we didn’t put it in the back of the net which is what you’ve got to do.
“We’ve been working with the boys up front all week about trying to get into the right areas in this system.
“They changed it slightly, they had it for three or four minutes and they scored, that’s the difference. They’ll be a good team in this league, I’ve said that all week.”
Dennis was inches away from giving Chesterfield an early lead as he poked just wide of the post after latching onto Sinnott’s through ball.
Shortly before half-time it was the same duo of Sinnott and Dennis who combined again to greater effect as the latter was put in behind the defence and slotted into the bottom corner.
The Spireites doubled their lead just five minutes later as Sinnott’s half-volley crashed against the bar before the same man tucked the ball into the bottom corner from the resulting scurry.
Michael Tonge fired a free-kick wide of the mark as Vale looked for a way back into the game.
Substitute Anthony de Freitas then got into a dangerous position but couldn’t get his low shot on target before Tom Pope’s header was stopped by the returning Tommy Lee at the end of a drab second half.
Gary Caldwell’s decision to put debutant Jordan Flores into the midfield sparked the Spireites’ quickfire double but the Chesterfield boss was keen to ensure the limelight remained on his players.
“I thought the players were excellent,” said Caldwell. “We had a 20-minute spell in the game where we were sensational. That’s what we have to build on.
“Something needed to change, they had nine corners. I can’t take any credit for the changes we made.
“A formation change affects the players but the formation change didn’t change the game, the players did.
“I can’t put down the quality of passing or the mentality to a formation change. I keep saying we need to take the handbrake off, play with a bit of a freedom and belief, I thought we did that.”