Hannant’s on hand to secure Vale win

LUKE Hannant’s first-half strike secured Port Vale’s second victory of the season – but they had to survive a second-half onslaught from Crawley.

Tom Pope, back in the Valiants side after recovering from injury, had his shot parried away by Crawley’s Glenn Morris in the 20th minute, where Hannant was in the right place to slot in the rebound for his second Football League goal.

Pope then headed over the bar from Dave Worrall’s cross on the half-hour mark.

Crawley’s Lewis Young had a chance to level the scores 10 minutes from the break, but his low drive grazed the outside of a post.

Harry Kewell’s visiting side tried to look busier in the second half, but it ultimately led to nothing.

Ollie Palmer struck at the near post on the right in the 67th minute and it was comfortably collected by Vale custodian Scott Brown.

Pope could have doubled the result near the end, but he was denied a third goal of the season by a strong save from Morris.

Vale boss Neil Aspin was relieved to bag the three points after Crawley put his side on the rack in the second half. “It was the score I was looking for, not the performance,” said Aspin.

“We were second best for all of the second half and from that point you have to say Crawley deserved to get back into the game with the amount of possession they had.”

One standout performer was debutant Mitchell Clark, the 19-year-old signed on loan from Aston Villa. Aspin said: “It’s always difficult when you come from U23 football, but now that he’s had his first game, hopefully he goes from strength to strength.”

Crawley boss Kewell was less than impressed after his side had the majority of the ball, but did nothing with it after 16 shots and only one on target.

“We dominated the game and we created our chances, but we just didn’t take it,” said Kewell.

“Port Vale got their chance and they took it.

“I’m very confident in my team. Port Vale were just lucky that they threw everything on the line and they got away with it.

“If we play like we did against them, I’m confident we’ll win more games than we’ll lose.”