‘I COULD NOT HAVE ASK-ED FOR MORE...’
John’s first Vale win as Stags downed
PORT Vale boss John Askey hopes his first win in charge can be a turning point in their season.
Ricky Miller’s second-half double gave Vale victory over promotion-chasing Mansfield and breathing space on the relegation places in the fourth-tier.
Askey said: “Obviously, I’m really pleased. We’ve been playing well, putting in performances but today we have taken our chances and to do it against Mansfield, a team who are obviously doing really well and will probably get automatic promotion, shows how well we have done. Although we scored two, we could have scored more.
Vale survived an early scare as Mansfield were awarded a penalty after 17 minutes.
Referee Darren Bond pointed to the spot when defender Leon Legge caught CJ Hamilton in the box.
But home goalkeeper Scott Brown was there to thwart spotkick taker Nicky Ajose, diving low to his left to push the ball around the post.
Askey added: “We talked about it in training, about putting teams under pressure, especially when we are at home, and I thought we showed that, and that’s what we did.
“There was a lull in play when they got the penalty, but then the save changed it and gave us a massive lift.
“It was great to finally get the win. That’s what we’ve all been looking for and hopefully we can reproduce that.
“I was proud of our performance and my players. The players deserve great credit, they worked their socks off.”
After the break, Vale took com- mand with two quick-fire goals from forward Miller.
His first, in the 50th minute, saw him go one-on-one with Jordan Smith before rounding the Stags stopper to convert.
He got his second moments later, drilling in from inside the six-yard box after Mansfield failed to clear a cross.
Ajose pulled one back after an hour, heading Otis Khan’s cross past Brown – but Vale hung on to move seven points clear of the relegation zone, while Mansfield drop down to fourth.
Mansfield boss David Flitcroft said: “I felt we started poorly.
“We have given them a lift in the first-half – it wasn’t good play from Port Vale, it was us giving them a lift with misplaced passes.
“We put ourselves in the mire a bit, players making poor passes and decisions which cost us the game.
“We just lacked responsibility from start to finish, whether that was defending a cross or stopping a cross or in a high-impact moment, making a really good decision and having real quality about our work, we didn’t do that.
“We have been undone and Port Vale have deservedly won this match.
“You have to be responsible, when you are in control of a football, you have to be responsible in the way you deal with that situation in a game, and these moments
make an impact on the team.
“But when you are not in possession, you have to make sure that you are tracking, you are stopping a cross.
“Clearly, we have not got that right and it is a trend away from home that I have got to do something about and make sure that my responsibilities are met.
“The selection for the next game will be a team that want to do things right on the ball, as well as off the ball, and I have got to get that right.
“You could argue if the penalty goes in, it’s a different contest, but you have to deal with what’s gone before that and what’s gone after that, so we need to learn from the defeat.”