Rob Page: Vale were “excellent”

Manager Rob Page accepted that Vale took their “foot off the gas at times” against Crewe but he was delighted with their performance overall.

Page commented:  “I thought it was an excellent performance. We were sloppy in parts of the game, but I think it was a difficult test for us in many aspects.

We got off to the best start and that’s what I asked them to do…

“I know Crewe are rock bottom and they have gone down today but he made changes, every time they play against us he changes it and goes more physical, and sort of goes away from what he normally does where they get the ball down and play.

“So, we knew we had to match that. We got off to the best start and that’s what I asked them to do – start fast come out of the traps and get an early goal. We certainly did that.

“Then I thought we took our foot off the gas a little bit with regards to the tempo. But once we addressed that and made a couple of changes, I thought Byron (Moore) made a big difference when he came on and increased the tempo for us.

“But overall it was a complete performance.”