Micky pays tribute to his players and staff
After the 2-2 draw against Northampton Town saw supporters and players celebrating together on the Vale Park pitch, Micky Adams recalled the situation the club found itself in not too long ago, and he admitted shedding a tear or two after the match.
The Vale boss said: “Three days before the start of pre-season we didn’t have any training kit and we had three players signed a week before the season kicked off.
“So we have had our problems, but the one thing that we have done is to stick together and believe in each other and done the work.
“To win promotion you have got to work hard for it, we have done that and we have all stuck together. We have had difficult times during the season but having those difficult times makes you appreciate the times we are having now.
“I went to join Sheffield United, my boyhood club, rightly or wrongly, but we were in the top two then and so we could have achieved this two years ago.
“The pressure was on, I suppose, to produce it again and I have done that. I feel humble, I have got great staff, the football club is in a good place at the moment, with Norman Smurthwaite and Paul Wildes, the chairman.
“It is onwards and upwards for the football club and I can’t thank everybody enough for their support.”
Vale didn’t perform as they would have liked in front of their biggest gate since March 1998, but perhaps that was to do with the occasion itself, as Micky explained.
“To be honest I thought they were average today. I thought picking a man of the match would have been difficult today because I thought the occasion and the emotion of it all got to them a bit, and that is understandable – they are only human.
“Northampton played really well and I have got to give them credit. Whoever faces Northampton in the play-offs is in for one hell of a two games, because they are a strong unit.
“But we have had a little bit of luck at the end and I think we deserve it and as I have said, onwards and upwards, we can look forward to next season now.
“We were kept informed all along of what was happening elsewhere, but we are not mathematically certain of promotion yet, but we are going to enjoy it tonight, that’s for sure.
“If you had seen me half an hour ago I was blubbering like a good ‘un, but I am genuinely delighted for everybody connected with the football club.”