Adams: I felt sorry for the fans
Manager Micky Adams apologised to Vale’s travelling supporters who braved appalling conditions to witness Vale lose to Gillingham on Saturday.
I think that we need to get back to basics in terms of defending set pieces, because we’re conceding too many…
Adams commented: “Big Akinfenwa, I know he’s a handful, but you’ve got to deal with brute force.
“We assigned Tom Pope to mark him, because he’s a big strong boy, but Akinfenwa fended him off like he wasn’t there for the first goal.
“Their second goal from the second phase of a corner, and we didn’t deal with him again.
“Every time I’ve played against him for this football club, I’ve not had a centre-half who could deal with him.
“If you get into a wrestling match with him at any time, there’s only going to be one winner.
“I think that we need to get back to basics in terms of defending set pieces, because we’re conceding too many.
“We’ve got players who should be able to deal with that type of play, but they didn’t here.
I told the players that I felt sorry for the fans because they were windy and wet in the away end, and we didn’t given them anything to cheer about…
“This was an away-day performance that we’ve seen a few times this season.
“It’s not really a shock what happened and I told the players that I felt sorry for the fans because they were windy and wet in the away end, and we didn’t given them anything to cheer about.”