Port Vale’s interim manager Andy Crosby reflects on Vale’s 2-1 defeat to Ipswich Town on Tuesday night.
- Andy Crosby | “The performance tonight will give everybody belief and faith that this group of players, and this group of staff, are going to do everything they can for the remaining three games.”
- Port Vale interim manager speaks to the press after Vale's defeat at Portman Road.
- Crosby: “All the players travelled down here today - they were all here - there was togetherness before the game, and we need to maintain that for the rest of the season.”
Crosby reflected on Vale’s defeat to Ipswich after Vale put in a battling performance against the promotion-chasing side.
A goal from Mal Benning on the stroke of halftime had put Vale in a strong position, but a second-half brace from Nathan Broadhead secured a comeback victory for the Tractor Boys.
Speaking after the game, Crosby is hoping that the performance in East Anglia proved that the team are doing everything they can to ensure Vale achieve the goal of maintaining our League One status.
He said: “The task in hand is to make sure we preserve League One status. We’ve now got a three-game mini-league, everything we can control individually and collectively, we have to do - our destiny is in our hands.
“The performance tonight will give everybody belief and faith in that this group of players, and this group of staff, are going to do everything they can for the remaining three games in the season to achieve that goal.
“All the players travelled down here today - they were all here - there was togetherness before the game, and we need to maintain that for the rest of the season.”
Vale put in a strong performance against the Tractor Boys, and a shining light of the night was the display of young James Plant on his first league start for the Vale.
Crosby was proud of the display the youngster put in on Tuesday night and believes he can leave Suffolk with his head held high.
“James has grown so much on and off the pitch so much in the last eight or nine months, I think his personal skills – the way he is as an 18-year-old lad – he’s a very mature young man and he takes on information really well.
“I spoke to him this morning and said, ‘Sometime you are going to have to make your debut’, and with Tom Pett ruled out this morning, we needed someone who was prepared to run and represent the club with real pride.
“He can walk away from here tonight and think that’s a really good start to my Port Vale career in terms of starts.”