Port Vale 5-1 Southend Utd: the Valiants ended their poor run by putting Southend United to the sword on Saturday afternoon at Vale Park.
Interim manager Danny Pugh made four changes including the return of Devante Rodney upfront. It was Rodney who gave Vale a perfect start when his shot from the edge of the box put the Valiants ahead in the first minute.
Vale overcame the blow of Shaun Brisley picking up an early injury to double their lead on twenty minutes. Good work by Rodney and Cristian Montano set up David Worrall whose deflected effort went in off Cordner to put Vale 2-0 after just twenty minutes.
It got even better six minutes later. Nathan Smith headed down in the box and Kurtis Guthrie challenged the keeper. The ball reached sub Adam Crookes who scored his first goal for the club.
Good work from Rodney set up Guthrie who forced a good save from the Southend keeper. There was seven minutes injury time for the first period due to a number of injuries and Vale made the opposition pay as good work by Gibbons saw him make a mazy run into the box and set up Rodney for his second goal of the half and tenth of the season.
Vale could have made it five with an outrageous effort from Conlon who tried to beat the keeper from the half-way line but the second period was a quieter affair as the home side made a number of substitutions.
The Valiants would have been keen to have kept a clean sheet but former Vale midfielder Nathan Ferguson scored with a fine curling effort on 84 minutes after a period of Southend pressure. It was a rare blot on Vale’s copybook and the Valiants reacted with sub Manny Oyeleke scoring a fifth from an acute angle.
It was a much more assured performance from Danny Pugh’s side. Rodney’s first-half display was full of power and threat while Kurtis Guthrie laboured away upfront and deserved a goal. Tom Conlon was impressive again while Jake Taylor delivered a much improved performance. However, probably the starkest difference between Saturday and Tuesday’s games was the impressive full-back displays of James Gibbon and Cristian Montano. Both were subbed in the second-half and Vale fans will be keeping their fingers crossed that the duo can stay fit.
Full-time: Port Vale 5-1 Southend Utd
Port Vale: Brown – Gibbons (Mills), Brisley (Crookes), Smith, Montano (Fitzpatrick) – Joyce, Taylor (Oyeleke), Conlon – Rodney, Guthrie, Worrall (Hurst)
Subs: Scott, Fitzpatrick, Burgess
A much better performance but we have to take account of the fact that we were playing against a pretty poor side, but we could do no more than win well and this we certainly achieved.
The new Manager will have to look after both Montano and Gibbons who are without doubt players with lots of potential but regrettably are injury prone. Rodney looks like a twenty goals a season player and Conlon is fast becoming a very creditable player and leader.
With several other good players in the squad the new Manager has a great collection of players and his job will be to turn them into a good team. One thing I wouldn’t do is to write off Legge – because the forwards were letting him down he tried to be a defender and an attacker which put pressure on him and he committed some unnecessary fouls however he still has plenty to give and should be included in future plans.