Micky hoping for back-to-back wins
Micky Adams will be looking to back-to-back wins as Vale take on bottom-placed Aldershot Town here at Vale Park on Saturday afternoon (weather pernmitting)
The Vale boss said: “We are ready and looking forward to the game. Last Saturday was a big relief for everybody and hopefully it has given the boys a bit of self-belief and given everybody confidence.
“We were on a terrific run at the beginning of the season, in fact for most of the season, and you could see a confident group of players.
“Obviously that confidence has not been there of late and that has been cause by us losing games, but confidence breeds success and we are hoping we have turned the corner.
“There is no doubt the importance of the game. Aldershot going to the bottom of the league on Tuesday will have been a real gut-wrencher for them and they need wins.
“Points at this time of the year - not necessarily for us but for those at the bottom – three points are massive for them so I can only see an Aldershot team coming here and trying to win the game – I think that’s their best policy.
“But we have got our own agenda. We want to get back to back victories to feel better about ourselves and to cement our place at the top.
“We know what we have got to do, let’s hope we can do that. I think the pace of the game and the tempo of the game hopefully will be dictated by us and not them.
“I felt that was the key to our success last week. We started really well and played in their half of the pitch for a lot of the first half and if you can do that and get an early goal as well, then obviously that settles everybody down.
“If we don’t do that, then obviously we have got to try and be a bit patient. A draw would probably help us rather than them.
“But our focus this week is that we need to set the tempo of the game, we need to start fast, we need to make sure that we concentrate fully, particularly the boys at the back.
they have to be mindful of the act that if things are doing well we need to keep a decent shape and not go gung-ho – it takes ninety minutes to win a game of football.” “And if we are putting pressure on Aldershot then
Vale have a couple of players back in contention for a place and also players who featured in last weekend’s victory at York are either doubtful or not available.
Adams says: “Daniel Jones has had a good weeks training and so he will be in the squad. We think there was a little bit of nervousness on his part last week and he certainly didn’t want to let anybody down.
“He did well sticking his hand in the air and saying he didn’t feel quite right in the warm-up, but he has had a good week in training.
“Doug Loft is fit and available, Rob Taylor has broken a bone in his hand this week in training, so he is going to be doubtful.
“Darren Purse is back on the training ground but I would think this game is too early for him, he needs a week’s training and obviously Chris Birchall is away on international duty.