ASPIN PRAISE FOR HIS PLAYERS AFTER SUFFERING CUP HEARTACHE

port vale

PORT Vale boss Neil Aspin was pleased with his team’s efforts - and frustrated not to have got a penalty - after the Valiants recovered from an awful start to push Sunderland all the way in yesterday’s 2-1 FA Cup first-round defeat at Vale Park. The League One promotion contenders looked as though they would win at a canter when George Honeyman put them in front inside the first minute and Lynden Gooch added a second on 19 minutes. But Tom Pope pulled a goal back for the Valiants on 35 minutes before they had strong claims for a penalty waved away 17 minutes into the second half when Jack Baldwin challenged Luke Hannant. Aspin spoke to referee Anthony Backhouse after the game. The manager said: “He said he couldn’t see it, but then you are hoping for a bit of help from the linesman, or at least the four officials to get the decision right. “But we haven’t got it and it has been a recurring theme this season. We have had a lot of games where we don’t get decisions and we get apologies which mean nothing. They cost you points and, although we are not going to win the FA Cup, if we’d come out of it with a replay, everybody would have been happy with that.” Aspin praised his own players’ resilience after Sunderland’s flying start. He said: “I am feeling a lot better than after that opening 20 minutes! I am really pleased with the players’ efforts after that.” Aspin made a tactical change on the half-hour as fit-again Manny Oyeleke replaced Theo Vassell and Vale switched from 3-5-2 to a 4-4-2. The manager added: “We have played the last five games with three at the back and done okay, we have been unbeaten. So, you would be loathe to change it going into the game. But we were clearly struggling with that in the first 20-25 minutes so had to go to a back four. “If you do that you have to take one of your defenders off, so I put Manny on and changed the shape and it worked a lot better for us. “That’s what my job is to do, to try to change it from the sidelines if it’s not working.”