ADDICKS BOSS ACCUSES VALE OF ‘ANTI-FOOTBALL’ IN WAKE OF DEFEAT

CHARLTON manager Ben Garner said Port Vale played ‘anti-football’ to beat his side 1-0 in Burslem on Saturday.

Danny Butterworth’s 57th-minute goal separated the teams as Vale leapfrogged Garner’s side to move five places up to tenth. But Garner was not impressed with Vale’s tactics, as he made clear in an interview with Louis Mendez of Londonnewsonline.

Asked for his views on the game overall, he said: “Horrible, would be my summary. A horrible pitch. A horrible performance. A very disappointing afternoon. The way they [Port Vale] play, they play antifootball. They just want to stop you. We weren’t good enough with the ball. I don’t think we fought enough without it. Didn’t show enough brightness. And then we give a horrendous goal away. That gives them something to hold on to and they can kill the game. “As horrible as the game was, at 0-0 you’ve got a chance to go on and win it. Not many positives in there this afternoon. We have to be much better than that.”

He said his own team had to improve but added: “Port Vale are like probably 80 per cent of the teams in this league, they set out just to stop you playing. There is no ambition for them to go and really attack and take the game to you. They were at home today and their ambition was to sit and stop us, make it a dull and horrible game and try to nick it 1-0 which they did.

“It is hard when you are playing against that on a surface like that but that is no excuse. We have to do much better than we did. We didn’t show enough character and personality. I have had some strong words in there and will certainly be expecting a response on Tuesday and Saturday.” Talking about Port Vale’s style, he said: “It can be effective, but for me that’s not football. For me it’s about trying to win the game. I always want to be the team trying to win the game and being the protagonist. Everyone chooses how they play but they sat literally just to stop us and disrupt and go physical. I thought the ref helped that with the way he officiated the game. “But that is what it is. We have to solve that. We have to be better and look at ourselves.” Garner will have unhappy memories of Vale Park. He was in charge of Swindon Town when they were beaten by Vale in League Two play-off semi-final second leg in May as Vale went on to win promotion.

That win over Swindon was followed by a pitch invasion and Vale were subsequently fined £15,000 for failing to control their spectators.