‘PRESSURE IS ON VALIANTS TO KEEP DELIVERING GOODS’
Vale midfielder Garrity insists Vale players have set high standards after flying start to the season
PORT Vale midfielder Ben Garrity says there is no such thing as a guaranteed first-team spot as the club prepares for today’s game at home to Bradford City (noon).
Vale have climbed to second in League Two on a run of ten wins from 12 games and will go top if they can beat Bradford by two goals.
Manager Darrell Clarke has been flexible with his team selections throughout the season. Garrity says the players accept that and also know there is plenty of competition for places.
That’s particularly true in central midfield at the moment as Jake Taylor and Brad Walker are back from injury to compete with Garrity, Tom Pett and Tom Conlon for places.
Garrity said: “Jake and Brad got injuries, but the manager can change the formation to bring other players in.
“You have to make sure you are performing and then it is up to the manager whether he thinks you should be in the team.
“But even if you are playing well, he has told us that if he wants to change the team he will. Depending on the opposition we are playing, he might change the formation. So, you just have to go with it because, up to now, he hasn’t got a decision wrong.
“There are a lot of good players here. When you look at players who haven’t really been getting as many minutes, I think they could walk into most teams in League Two. So, there is pressure on us to keep performing, we know that.”
Vale have won their last seven home games in a row but Clarke is determined there should be no complacency in what he expects to be a tough game against Derek Adams’ 12th-placed Bradford.
That said, he has been pleased with the way his new-look squad have started the season.
The manager said: “I think the relationships that have been formed on and off the pitch have been excellent and that has helped with the run we’ve had.
“I felt in pre season that I had a good group. When a manager says ‘a good group’, I mean in the way they train and conduct themselves, how they are as people and how they are in team meetings. They energise me and my staff, they energise us in training.
“Very rarely have I had to get my big stick out and smash a few because the standards aren’t high.
“There are a lot of drivers (of standards) in the changing room, they are important. There are a lot of leaders in the changing room, they drive the standards.
“So, I felt that early. But the key is to keep going and keep driving it. That is always a question myself and my staff are asking of the players to make sure they
are keeping the standards high and we don’t get complacent. We have to be fully focused and have
a consistent way of working for each game and each ‘project’, I call it. That is never going to change,
win, draw or lose. We do that consistently and the players are responding great to it.”