CLARKE HAS BIG DECISION TO MAKE AHEAD OF AWAY TEST
DARRELL Clarke was giving nothing away when asked if he planned to make changes for this afternoon’s game at Harrogate. But same XI or not, the Port Vale manager will be hoping for the same standards his side showed in Friday’s 1-0 win at home to Exeter City.
The manager hinted before Exeter that he could rotate players for the Easter programme, but may be tempted to stick with the same side that has won the last three games, taking their victorious run to four in total.
They were certainly well worth their victory on Friday as Theo Robinson’s strike inside two minutes separated the teams and lifted Vale to 16th in League Two.
While not actually declaring his team safe after that win, Clarke did say they could start looking up the table rather than down. That’s a fair point considering Vale are closer to the play-off places, at 10 points, than they are to the relegation spots, at 12.
No-one is suggesting Vale can make up that gap to the top seven with just seven games to play, but Vale’s form is giving us hope for next season.
Not only are Clarke’s Vale picking up points, they are also winning praise from opposition managers.
Crawley boss John Yems described his team’s defeat to Vale 10 days ago as ‘men against boys’, and Exeter boss Matt Taylor was also complimentary about the Vale.
Taylor told his club’s official website: “What a nightmare start, first and foremost.
“As much as you can prepare a team for the expectations of any game, to gift them a goal like that was unforgivable and then we were up against it.
“They outplayed us in terms of all aspects of that game today. They were better than us, quicker to the ball, more aggressive and actually used the ball better than we did.
“We can assess it in terms of what team we think we are but we were neither today. We were second in all departments, in and out of possession.
“So, that is a frustrating one from my point of view. There were a lot more men in the Port Vale team
– and not in terms of age, just in terms of the way they played and conducted themselves and went after that game.
“When you are ahead you grow in confidence. They got that early boost in relation to that and you could see that on the back of their last three performances. But it was just a disappointing afternoon from our point of view.”
Vale take on a Harrogate side who are a place above them, in 15th, after their goalless draw at Walsall on Saturday ended a run of three league defeats.
Their manager Simon Weaver was happier with the result than the performance although he felt his side had started to play their way back into some form after the break.
He said: “Our goalkeeper, James Belshaw, had a stormer. Credit to him, he kept us in the game. We were poor in the first half. We looked devoid of confidence and energy and I think that is probably because of the lack of confidence from the last few games.
“We just didn’t get going and therefore it seemed inevitable that we would have to bottom out somehow and probably concede a goal just because we looked really off the pace.
“We talked about it at half time, we weren’t happy but it wasn’t a shouting match. It was that poor that there was no point shouting and screaming. It was a case of ‘come on boys, you have been with us a long time, we expect more, you are disappointing yourselves’.
“We made a couple of changes and I thought both subs made a good impact on our fortunes in the game and, whilst James Belshaw still had to pull off a couple of great saves, we at least established ourselves in the game in the second half.”