Askey after Crawley

Port Vale remained 10th in League Two following a 0-0 draw against Crawley Town yesterday afternoon, and Askey admits it gets his side back on track.

It was a hard-fought point for Askey’s Valiants at the People’s Pension Stadium yesterday, with the gaffer stressing that the last thing he wanted was for them to travel all that way and go home with nothing.

The Vale were not without chances however, and the boss emphasised that there were good spells of football played by his side, and showed signs of getting back to where they need to be.

The Vale play host to Cheltenham next in the league, whom they beat 3-1 in the FA Cup second round last month, and Askey says that his side must be at their best if they are to take something from the match.

“The last thing we wanted to do is come all the way here, and have to go back having not got a point, so although I obviously would have wanted the three points, it get’s us going again.

“We had spells of playing some good football, spells where we weren’t so good, but we look to be back on it, which we obviously weren’t last week, but signs of getting back to where we want to be and hopefully next home game we can be firing on all cylinders.

“It’s a point and it gets us moving, Cheltenham are a decent side and we’ve got to be at our best, so it’s important that we got something today.”

Scott Brown was the hero yesterday afternoon, pulling off vital saves to keep the scores level, earning the Vale’s Man of the Match award voted by the fans on Twitter.

It was the Valiants’ sixth clean sheet in all competitions this season, and Askey prasied the Vale keeper after the match.

Another player who particularly impressed yesterday was Rhys Browne, who returned to action following illness, and the gaffer was pleased with how he caused the Crawley defence problems.

"There was one [Crawley one-on-one] in the first half, which was a mistake, and second-half there was a couple of mistakes that led to him getting one-on-ones.

“Obviously it is concerning when you see them going through and you think it’s going to be a goal, but luckily Scott [Brown] had one of those days where he was excellent on the one-on-ones.

“Rhys [Browne] is one of those that can go past defenders, and early on he caused them problems and we should have scored one of those chances, I think it was David Amoo that it fell to, but Rhys has got a lot of ability and he can go either way, right or left, but there was a few good performances today."