The most important thing – Port Vale boss on key to defensive improvement

Port Vale manager John Askey praised his regular central defensive partnership after the 1-0 away win over Crewe Alexandra.

Central defenders Nathan Smith and Leon Legge have been praised by Vale fans after their performances on Saturday afternoon and Askey joined in.

It’s the most important thing keeping your clean sheets, if you’re not keeping clean sheets then there’s things wrong…

He told the official Port Vale website: “They’ve done really well again, getting that partnership and playing week in week out, and because they are both good players at this level, it can only help them and we’re starting to keep clean sheets now.

“It’s the most important thing keeping your clean sheets, if you’re not keeping clean sheets then there’s things wrong and then you’re relying on scoring a lot of goals… hopefully that can develop but also we can get back to scoring a few more goals.”