Port Vale

Striker Gavin Tomlin wants to turn Vale Park into a fortress, starting with Saturday’s match against Bradford City.

The former Southend United forward is confident that good performances such as the opening match against Brentford will soon turn into wins.

Tomlin said: “You can take a lot from a good performance, whether you win or you lose.

“This is our fortress and we don’t want to lose any games at home so we will be playing for the three points.”

“The prerequisite to getting a result is a good performance so as long as you keep making good performances then more than likely one of those results will go for you,” he told Valiant Player.

Tomlin, who made it into professional football at the relatively late age of 24, has put emphasis on the importance of the psychological factor of the game.

Tomlin explained: “I like to test myself, I prefer to play against the better opponents and try and play as high as possible, and I’m looking forward to the next few games.

“It is about your mentality, psychological aspect of the game, you have to size up your opponents and try and find out their weaknesses, the higher you go there’s less weaknesses in the opponents you play.

“It has been very interesting and I have been enjoying it.

“I look at the mental aspect of football, it is very important.”

Tomlin believes Vale must press their rivals weaknesses and take advantage of anything they can.

“I think it is probably 70 percent or higher, it is definitely important that you try and look at other people’s weaknesses.”

Vale will be familiar with fellow promoted side Bradford who despite finishing sixth joined Vale in Sky Bet League 1 after success in the League 2 play-offs.

“I am sure it will be a tough game obviously we played against them last season, I know quite a bit about them,” Tomlin explained.

“I remember they’ve signed a few new players so it’ll be another difficult game but I am looking forward to it,” Tomlin added.