‘WE CAN CREATE MEMORIES’
Vale promotion-winner Sproson insists club can win at Wembley if emotions are kept in check
PORT Vale hero Phil Sproson is hoping the team can ignore all distractions ahead of a play-off final he reckons is too close to call.
The Vale will attempt to end their five-year exile from League One when they take on Mansfield Town in the League Two final at Wembley on Saturday (4pm).
Vale have already sold more than 15,000 tickets for the game having booked their place with a thrilling second-leg victory over Swindon in last Thursday’s semi-final.
That means Vale are into their first play-off final appearance since 1993 - a chance to compete for the final promotion place against a Mansfield side who finished just two places and one point behind them after the 46-game regular season.
Sproson said: “This is a completely different thing now. Wembley is such a one-off. It is a final, it’s different from two legs. It is a unique situation and is about the team and individuals that adapt the quickest.
“I don’t think there is anything between the teams, they are quite evenly matched all over. Both are hard-working and well organised and so it will be whoever can control their emotions.
“The most important thing is to look after your own performance. Forget what is going on around you. I know it is difficult, but try to park the occasion and the buildup and the euphoria of being at Wembley.
“You have to try to get away from that and sit in that dressing room and think, ‘we have a job of work to do here. We have a game against a good side and, if we are going to win today, we are going to have to play. The fans and owners can’t play for us, we have to play the game and not get carried away with the euphoria’.
“I am sure Darrell Clarke and his
staff will instil that into the players beforehand.”
Sproson’s 500 Vale games included winning three promotions. He’s hoping to be celebrating the class of 2021/22 going up this weekend.
He said: “Promotion is precious. I have quiet moments when I think of games that turned our seasons around and remember teammates, some that aren’t here now. Steve Fox and people like that, you cherish the memories of them. Promotion years are happy times.
“Can Vale do it? Why can’t we? Why can’t Vale win at Wembley? Of
course we can. Of course we can go into League One.”
Sproson is hoping Jamie Proctor is fit after missing the semi-final second leg with a hip injury. But he was impressed with the striker’s replacement, on-loan Huddersfield forward Kian Harratt, who helped Vale take the game to Swindon.
He said: “We don’t know how Jamie is, only he and the management will know that.
“I think if he is fit you would start him all the time for his experience and what he brings, but I thought the kid (Harratt) did well up front, he ran his heart out.”
Sproson says both sides will be looking to keep possession, adding: “That pitch is massive and you cannot give the ball away cheaply.
“That is something the players have to really work at, keeping hold of the ball, using it well. If you give the ball away you are going to put yourself under an awful amount of pressure because it is such a big pitch.
“Vale Park is big but with the momentous
occasion and the big crowd, that will drain players anyway. If you give it away cheaply you will suffer. That is why people like Proctor are so important, he will make it stick and allow whatever midfield is picked to join in.”