Striker says they all want Micky to stay
Vale striker Tom Pope was obviously disappointed with how things panned out at Ashton Gate last night, but says it was down to individual errors, not a poor team performance.
As a life-time Vale supporter himself, he understand the fans’ frustrations, but the players are just as disappointed after a result like that.
He said: “It is hard to put into words really. I think it has been coming to be honest, in the last two or three weeks we have kept on conceding sloppy goals and we are not going to score two or three goals every week.
“We are gifting sides chances and when you are playing against players with the quality of Baldock, Paterson and Emaunuel-Thomas you are going to get punished.
“That is what happened in the first half, we made so many mistakes and they put them away.
“You are always going to lose games, but it is the way you lose them and that is what the gaffer has said, he doesn’t mind us losing games of football, but not the way we played.
“In spells we have done alright. We came in at half time four-nil down and people at home probably think we have been absolutely battered, but that wasn’t the case.
“I think we had some good spells and we had some good chances. Ben had a great chance, Jenno had a couple of decent efforts and it was the last five minutes of the half that really knocked the stuffing out of us.
“I thought for the first fifteen or twenty minutes we were quite bright, but we just went to pot, we let in a second goal and before you know it you are on the end of a hiding.
“We are in a totally better league with totally better players and you get punished. It is just a shame for the fans who have travelled down he to have witnessed it.”
Some supporters made their feelings known after the final whistle, leaving the manager to dwell on things as he thinks over his future.
The players are as one, they all know what a fantastic job Micky Adams has done for the club, especially over the last 18 months or so.
Pope said: “We want Micky Adams to stay at the club, we respect everything he has done for us, he has put us in the position we are in and we want him to stay.
“Obviously they have travelled a long way to watch the game but sometimes you see the odd few fans react and it is needless sometimes.
“Emotions are high, but we don’t expect to lose games of football, we don’t try to lose games of football, we always try our best, but individual errors cost you.
“They can’t stand there and say we have walked around the pitch and not cared, because we have won plenty of tackles and put ourselves about a bit, but we have made four or five mistakes and we have been punished for it.
“It is a bad performance and it happens in football. We have come across a decent side who have punished us for our mistakes.
“I think if it was an uncaring performance I could understand the frustration, but we certainly put a shift in, it was just individual errors that have cost us.”