neil aspin

Manager Neil Aspin has tasked himself with putting a lot more positivity into the club and wants to give the fans something to turn up for.

The gaffer watched his side put in a terrific shift at the weekend after coming away with a 1-0 win over promotion pushing Lincoln City, and is keen for the club to look forward rather backwards from now on.

With the season soon coming to a close, Neil Aspin wants to start attracting fans back to Vale Park for the new season and build fans confidence back up, but admits it's not a fast process.

"It takes time. Obviously when the clubs not had anything to cheer about, it affects everyone. There's been a lot of negativity around the club for various reasons, on and off the pitch and that reflects in what gates you get.

"It takes a while to build people's confidence up but what supporters want to see is that the club is moving in the right directions and they've got some ambition to change the position that they're in, so they can start looking forward rather than back.

"Every time I drive into the club and I come through Burslem itself in and around the area, you want to do well for the local people, you want to give them a team they can be proud of. 

"You want that for people. At the moment I've got the job of trying to do that, it will take time. There's a lot of things that need doing at the club, but hopefully in time we can achieve something."

A win at Mansfield this weekend would be just want Neil Aspin is looking for.

At least a point at Mansfield would all but secure the Valaints' League 2 status for next season, and the team will go into it full of confidence after the win at the weekend against the Imps.

With that confidence, the gaffer is well aware of how clinical Mansfield can be after the last encounter between the two sides, which saw the Stags come away from Vale Park back in November with a 4-0 win.

"They spent big to get the squad they've got. When we played them at home it was a bit of strange game in the fact the first 40 minutes was the best we've played all season at home and we ended up losing the game 4-0.

"I must say in the second half of that game, the chances that they had they were very clinical. The forwards had good movement and they took the chances well, they obviously scored off a couple of set pieces that night.

"They've got some good players and they've been up their since challenging."