Micky Adams happy with the point, but knows there are improvements to be made.
Port Vale opened their 2014-15 League One campaign with a 1-1 draw against West Midland rivals, Walsall.
Speaking after the match manager Micky Adams couldn’t hide his disappointment with the result, especially with such a convincing performance from his side in the first half.
Adams said: “I’m pleased with certain aspects of the performance; particularly in the first half we were excellent. However, in the second half we weren’t so good.
“In the first half we managed to get the ball and play it wide to Mark Marshall. I think some of his delivery into the box was brilliant, and Tom Pope was at the end of it, which was how we got our goal.
“Second half we didn’t get enough possession of the ball, which meant we didn’t get the ball wide or straight into the box, consequently Walsall came into the game.
“I would have liked the three points from the game, but very similar to last season we played a good side and got something out of it.
“We’re off and running which is always important. The first point on the board and I’m sure we’ll get better. There are areas of the game we need to work on, but that’s what its all about.”
A key player for Walsall was midfielder, Romaine Sawyer, who caused the Valiants a lot of problems.
On Sawyer, Adams said: “I worried slightly about the player they have in the hold, I knew that if we dropped too deep too soon, he would cause us problems.
“We talked about that at half time, but we didn’t do anything about it second half. This meant we had to change our system to combat the issue when they got on top, which isn’t good enough.”
A lot of heads were turned with Adams’ bold team selection, and he explained: -
“I picked the team from what I saw in pre-season, but its always hard picking the first team.
“There are a lot of disappointed boys in the dressing room. They all had a good pre season, every single one of them, so you have to disappoint people unfortunately. I picked the team, particularly the goalkeeper.”
You will be able to watch Micky’s interview and highlights from the match tomorrow on Valiant Player.