Boss pleased for the players and the fans
Micky Adams was full of praise for both teams after the match at Walsall last night and was quick to sing the praises of the unlikely match winner, debutant ‘keeper Sam Johnson.
He said: “I would have paid a tenner to watch that. From start to finish it was a game full of decent football, great chances created by both teams and good goalkeeping from both teams and lots of chances.
“You always worry about young goalkeepers, but we have got great confidence in him. He works very, very well with Mark Grew and Mark has g to every faith in him. He had a full twenty-four hours to think about playing, but it hasn’t affected him.
“He is a shy unassuming lad. He’s a nice boy and if my daughter brought him home I would be delighted.”
Micky was pleased to finally win a match decided on penalties and said: “I have already lost two penalty shoot-outs as Port Vale manager and I lost my job at Brighton after a penalty shoot-out so I don’t really look forward to penalty shoot-outs.
“It’s about what happens on the day. We had two or three opportunities to win the game in the shoot-out and we fluffed our lined.
“I don’t want to talk about Louis Dodds’ penalty, it’s the worse one I’ve ever seen, but we deserved a bit of luck.”
One or two players may have given the manager food for thought last night with Monday’s televised game against Oxford coming up.
The gaffer added: “I said to the boys before the game, ‘There’s an awful lot to play for. Don’t think that because we’ve made the changes and that some of you haven’t been playing it doesn’t matter.
“It matters to me, it matters to our supporters and we want to win every game we play. There’s a lot to play for so don’t go out there thinking that there’s nothing on it – there’s lots on it individually and collectively.’
“To be fair to my boys they have gone out there and performed and I am delighted for them more than anything.”