Port Vale interim-manager Andy Crosby says his team’s performance during last night’s 2-1 defeat at Portman Road will give everyone at the club confidence as they continue their fight against relegation in their final three matches of the season.

The Valiants made the Blues work for their seventh successive home win and even went ahead via Mal Benning’s first-half injury time goal.

However, Nathan Broadhead netted twice after the break, the second an 84th-minute penalty, to seal three vital points for the Blues.

Vale remain 18th, six points ahead of Cambridge United in the final relegation spot.

“The task in hand is to make sure we preserve League One status,” Crosby told his club’s official website. “We’ve now got a three-game mini-league, everything we can control individually and collectively, we have to do - our destiny is in our hands.

“The performance tonight will give everybody belief and faith in that this group of players, and this group of staff, are going to do everything they can for the remaining three games in the season to achieve that goal.”

Crosby admitted it had been a difficult day or so with boss Darrell Clarke having been sacked on Monday morning.

“It has been a tough 24 hours for everyone to digest the news. But football moves on and we knew we had a really important game to prepare for, the first game of a four-game mini-season,” he told StokeonTrent Live.

“So we have tried to use the time really wisely and prepare for the game with a plan, to come here and frustrate the opposition for long periods which we did.

“Could we have been better with the ball? Absolutely, in key moments when we could have maybe got into really good transitions when we didn’t.

“I think that maybe told in the second half. But in terms of the effort, the togetherness of the group and the support of each other, all the players travelled down here today, the guys who were impact players and the guys who were injured or suspended, they were all here.

“There was a togetherness before the game and we have to maintain that for the rest of the season.”

He added: “Getting in front just before half-time gave everyone a boost. At half-time, it was calm and was retraining some messages that were important. We knew the second half would be even more challenging.

“But I don’t remember Aidan [Stone] having to make a lot of what you would say proper saves. There was a lot of defending of our box.

“I thought the three centre-backs, the two wing-backs, the two deep midfield players, three attackers, all did a sterling job of defending our box and made it as difficult as we could for them.

“But they have quality players, they are top of the league for a reason. They have a group who can impact the game, and from the bench.

“They were relentless and kept going and they got a decision given to them in terms of the penalty that gets them the winning goal.”

Photo: Matchday Images

Fatboy added 09:49 - Apr 19 Good luck in your final game against Plymouth!
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arc added 10:27 - Apr 19 He isn't seriously questioning that penalty decision, is he? In an age of crazy hand ball decisions, that one was as clearly and obviously correct as you'll ever see.
4

Saxonblue74 added 10:37 - Apr 19 Yes, quite the "performance" from some of them! Particularly the two who went down "injured" at 1-1 with 15 to go!!!
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itfcserbia added 11:09 - Apr 19 "to come here and frustrate the opposition for long periods which we did." - no lies there. Re the penalty paragraph, quite the use of passive speech to not congratulate a winning side who tried to play football for 90 odd minutes.
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Marinersnose added 11:11 - Apr 19 Port Vale played very well and adopted the low block as expected. As town fans you cannot criticise the opposition for adopting spoil tactics and wasting time as they were well aware of the threat we had offensively. They were very determined and defended well so for me this win was massive. This was a difficult game of football which we came through and we demonstrated real belief and resilience in achieving the win, This would've been a draw or a defeat in previous seasons. Plymouth will find Vale tricky opponents on their final game . Now onto another very difficult game at Peterborough. COYB

12

BurleysGloryDays added 12:49 - Apr 19 Awful time-wasting anti football team. Glad we came out the right side, and football won!
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ButchersBrokenNose added 14:42 - Apr 19 Did he really say they had three attackers on the pitch?!
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ArnieM added 15:43 - Apr 19 They may well have had 3 attackers on the pitch, but they were playing in amongst their own defence and sat in their own 18yrd area for most of the game.
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OliveR16 added 17:24 - Apr 19 To be fair, they could hardly have played any other way under the circumstances. We have played much better against that kind of defensiveness than we did in the first half, so we made it difficult for ourselves to some extent. They were static but so were we. Second half much better and it showed.
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Clemcc added 17:51 - Apr 19 Disappointed that the manager didn't mention Ipswich best team in the league!!! The others seems to mention this after the game. Didn't he get the script???
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churchmans added 23:56 - Apr 19 I thought port vale where very good and made us sweat with there high line in the first half and there park the bus tactics! If they play like that for the remaing 3 games left I can't see them losing any of em! Plymouth will have some serious work to do to beat them
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dangerous30 added 06:38 - Apr 20 I am glad we was made to work for it because it will keep us grounded for the games ahead.
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