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Interviews

John Askey calls for togetherness following loss to Cheltenham Town

24 February 2019

Interviews

John Askey calls for togetherness following loss to Cheltenham Town

24 February 2019

John Askey's Port Vale were condemned to defeat on Saturday afternoon as Cheltenham Town ran out 1-0 winners at The Jonny-Rocks Stadium, and the gaffer has called for togetherness following the defeat.

The boss named four changes ahead of the league clash with the likes of Manny Oyeleke, Cristian Montano, Leon Legge and David Worrall all returning to the starting line-up, and the refreshed Valiants started well.

Tom Pope went close on a couple of occasions before Worrall had a perfectly good goal wrongly disallowed for offside. Luke Varney then found the net in the first-half and in-hand won the game for The Robins.

Despite the loss, Askey certifies just how important it is for the players to remain positive and together ahead of next weekend's game against Notts County.

He said: "The main thing is is that the players don't get on at each other and you lose the dressing room. It's important that we keep everyone together and make them realise it's not anybody's fault in particular.

"If we lose, we lose as a team and it's vital we know the importance of what's going on and we'll work as hard as possible to try and rectify where we are."

Askey admits his Port Vale team need to be more lethal in front of goal going forward if they are going to get out of their current situation.

Vale had a numberof golden chances to get themselves back on level terms on Saturday with Montano going agonisingly close before the stroke of half-time, before a number of free-kick opportunities were squandered late on in the game.

With Notts County just around the corner, Askey insists it is a game Vale cannot afford to lose.

He said: "Some of the free-kicks, especially at the end, when we're playing short free-kicks with seconds to go; that's just naive to say the least.

"With seconds to go you've got to put the ball in the box and that was frustrating. We've got to find a way of playing slightly better. Cheltenham had one or two chances; Browny made a fantastic save, but we're still hanging in.

"Saturday's a massive game coming up against Notts County. It's a must not lose game but we've come here when there was very little in the game, but it wasn't to be again."


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