ASKEY: WE PLAYED OUR BEST FOOTBALL OF THE SEASON IN DEFEAT
JOHN Askey said he could take consolation from his Port Vale team’s performance despite their 3-1 defeat at League Two leaders Cambridge last night.
The Vale dropped five places to 13th after they were sunk by Paul Mullin’s hat-trick.
He opened the scoring with a third-minute penalty, but Theo Robinson levelled from the spot on 18 minutes as Vale impressed in the first half.
However, Mullin restored his team’s lead on 50 minutes and settled the game in injury time to go to 10 league goals for the season. Askey said: “I thought it was probably the best football we have played this season so far. It was more like we expect of them. Obviously the result isn’t, but you couldn’t knock their effort or some of the football we played. I thought it was really good.
“I thought we started slowly in both halves, but overall you can’t knock their effort and I thought we played a lot better.”
Askey said referee Trevor Kettle was wrong to give the early Cambridge penalty for what the manager felt was a slip in the area. But he added: “They responded really well, considering we had
gone 1-0 down. I thought we took control of the game and created one or two chances.
“We got a penalty and then it’s anybody’s game. The difference
tonight was probably Mullin who played really well for them, but so did Theo (Robinson). I thought Theo again was excellent. I am disappointed not to get something
but you can’t knock the effort of the players.” Robinson’s penalty takes him to four goals for the season. Askey added: “He did really well,
especially in the first half. In the second half he tired a little bit towards the end, but I thought his performance was good. There were one or two who played really well.”