HIGH PRAISE FOR VALE AS CLARKE PREPARES FOR ROVERS RETURN
PORT Vale go into tonight’s game at Bristol Rovers armed with praise not only from their own manager but also from Burton boss Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink.
Saturday’s 2-1 FA Cup victory at the Pirelli Stadium was achieved against the odds as they went into the game without either of their joint-top scorers James Wilson and Jamie Proctor.
They also had to overcome going behind at the League One side, through Ryan Leak’s 23rd-minute header, but came back to win it with goals from substitute Dennis Politic, on 79 and 82 minutes.
Brewers manager Hasselbaink said his team didn’t play well enough to expect to see off Vale.
He said: “I don’t think we were great. I don’t think we can be at 60 per cent, we are not good enough to only be at that level and beat teams like Port Vale.
“They won the midfield and the second balls, and we dwelt too much on the ball and didn’t pick the right passes. We had too many turnovers and we can’t depend on our keeper making saves.
“Nevertheless, when you are winning 1-0, and getting chances, you need to take them as good teams get to 2-0 and then the game settles down and you can pick them off. But we didn’t do that, and they kept on believing.”
Vale return to league action this evening still without Proctor and Wilson and, it seems certain, also
without back up centre forward David Amoo who was forced off in the second half on Saturday with a hamstring problem.
So, Darrell Clarke could partner Dennis Politic with Devante Rodney up front, but that’s only if Politic has made progress having only been fit enough for a role off the bench on Saturday because of a groin strain.
Rodney is the only fit centre forward on the books and Vale still have five games to negotiate before the transfer window opens on January 1.
Vale take on a Bristol Rovers side who were also winners in the FA
Cup, coming from behind to win 2-1 at home to League Two side Sutton United.
The game is a reunion for Clarke who led Rovers from the National League to League One in his fourand-a-half years in charge before leaving in 2018.
But Vale won’t be reunited with their former midfielder Tommy Widdrington. Rovers’ former director of football has left the club after three-and-a-half years, it was announced on Friday.
The 50-year-old’s spell with Rovers had also included taking charge of the first team as caretaker boss on two occasions.
Bristol Live reports Widdrington had been sidelined as part of a restructure in June and lost his director of football title, but had remained on the board until last week’s announcement.
· BRISTOL Rovers manager Joey Barton was yesterday acquitted of shoving former Barnsley boss Daniel Stendel into a metal post causing injuries to his face.
Barton had been charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm following a match between Barnsley and Fleetwood Town, who he managed at the time, in April 2019.
Barton had denied one count of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and was cleared by a jury after around one hour and 50 minutes of deliberations.