Manager heaps praise on the Vale’s biggest away following for a league game in 20 years as 3,139 Valiants backed his side in narrow defeat at Sheffield Wednesday.
- Darrell Clarke | “Huge thanks to the supporters for their incredible support”
- Port Vale manager assesses his side’s 2-0 defeat to Sheffield Wednesday in final match of 2022
- Clarke: “It’s been a great year for the football club, and we want to keep building that. To be ninth in League One at the end, it’s been a remarkable achievement.”
Port Vale manager Darrell Clarke reflected on a successful calendar year after the Vale fell to a narrow defeat at Sheffield Wednesday in our final match of 2022.
Two goals from Michael Smith secured all three points for the hosts as the Vale closed out
#the calendar year 9th in League One, backed by an incredible away support of 3,139 Valiants – the club’s largest away following since February 2002.
“It’s been a great year for the football club, and we want to keep building that,” said Clarke. “To be ninth in League One at the end, it’s been a remarkable achievement.
“I am really proud of everybody at the club, from the owners, to the players, to the staff, to the fans, and we hope to have a successful 2023.
“Looking on the whole year and 3,100 fans here today at Sheffield Wednesday, it’s absolutely superb and such a proud achievement.
“I’d just like to thank the supporters for their incredible support this year, and let’s try and have a very successful 2023, dust ourselves down and go to Forest Green and try to get the three points.”
The Vale headed in at the interval 1-0 down after Michael Smith’s penalty and Clarke admitted post-match that his side improved in the second half following a tactical switch at the break.
“It was a tough game and if I am honest, I picked the wrong formation to start the game with. We were a lot better second half with the changes and the change of shape.
“The lads gave me everything, we’ve had a few opportunities in the game at key moments and not quite taken them.
“When you play a 3-5-2 system you’ve got to be really good on transition of the ball, and we weren’t that, we were compact through the middle, we limited them to not many chances, but we never got a foothold in the game.
“When we went to a 3-4-3, we pressed, we rallied, and we got higher up the pitch and had more control.
“They’ve shown their quality, you can see why they’re going to finish in the top two or top three in the division.”