Assistant Manager believes the fans can play a huge pert this season
Assistant Manager mark Grew prised Vale’s small squad ahead of the home game against Torquay United this weekend, but warns they must be careful not to pick up ‘silly’ yellow cards.
He said: “People are saying we are a bit short because we have got a small squad, but every position now is covered.
“The only one we didn’t have last year was cover for Adam Yates, but now Richard Duffy has come in and all over the park we have got a good squad.
“Everybody on that bench will make a difference when they come on, and that’s a great thing for us. Although we have got a small squad, I’d rather have that squad than twenty four average players.
“We know sooner or later the suspensions are going to come in. We’ve got a couple of poor yellow cards from the start of the season – Clayton McDonald picked one up last week and Sam Morsy for hand ball.
“They have got to walk away from that now because this will be a big factor in the next two or three months.
“The other thing of course is keeping away from serious injuries. If we pick up three or four injuries, we can’t bring anybody in so that might be a problem, but we’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it.
Grew is expecting another tough game against the Gulls on Saturday, a side who he expects to be challenging for promotion in the latter stages of the season.
“I feel Torquay will be up there and they have been a little bit unfortunate over the past couple of years where they probably feel they have been hard done to and they should have gone up, but they didn’t.
“They have strengthened a little bit again this year. We had them watched against Rochdale and they put in a good performance.
“They are a good footballing side, there’s no question about that. They’ve got some good players, but they are meeting a Port Vale side that is full of confidence as well.
“We have come off a great result; they have come off a great result, so that makes a good recipe for a good game of football.
Micky Adams praised Vale’s travelling supporters after last week’s win at Morecambe and Grew added his take on the Vale fans, who he believes can make a massive difference this season.
He said: “We have had problems over the last few months, but I think the fans have gelled together with the players and the staff.
“They have realised the situation we have been in and I think they have been absolutely fantastic, not just at the games, but coming in and cleaning the ground up and doing jobs around the place to get his season underway.
“All the problems we have had have, I believe, made us a very tight-knit community.
“Our away performances have been quite good over the last couple of years and I think our supporters have got to take a lot of credit for that.
“Going to places like Bury the other year, it was like a home game and they make so much noise when we are away from home, it’s frightening.
“Against Barnet in the first game of the season, it felt like there was seven thousand here. They realised the importance of the game and they got behind us.
“Even during the second half when we weren’t playing particularly well, they still got behind us and they are so important to us.”