Port Vale 2-2 Forest Green Rovers reaction – the fans “were outstanding”
Managers Darrell Clarke and Ian Burchnall plus captain Tom Conlon reflected on a dramatic comeback on Saturday and the home supporters came in for high praise.
The Valiants were 2-0 down with twelve minutes left but late goals secured a valuable 2-2 home draw
Here’s the reaction…
Darrell Clarke – great to get that backing
I think you have to be happy with a point when you are 2-0 down at half-time, but we wanted to win the game today.
I certainly thought we were the better team throughout the game but we didn’t defend two set-pieces, which is a big disappointment. That meant they could then take their time over things and kill the game – I am not having a dig at that, that’s what you do when you’re 2-0 up away from home – but the lads kept going and we got our rewards in the end.
You have to do the basics of the game right; you have to defend set-plays because other than that they didn’t create many problems, I know they had one or two counters at the end but I don’t think I could have had any more attacking players on at the end, so they were always going to have one or two counters.
It was a frustrating first-half; we keep shooting ourselves in the foot by conceding the first goal, which we did today.
Let me give the fans a massive pat on the back today, I thought they were outstanding. At half-time, 2-0 down at home, I didn’t hear many grumbles and they stayed with the boys for the whole 95 minutes.
That is massive for us, they believe in the players, which is great and it is great to get the backing – it really is – because it makes such a massive difference to the players to get back in the game and feel the lift from the crowd.
Tom Conlon – never give up
It is what is built within the club; that is in our DNA now to never, ever give up – that is not just the players, that is everyone at the club.
There is a never say die attitude that the gaffer has put into us and Cros (Andy Crosby) said at half-time that we are third in the league for gaining points from behind, and that is something to be proud of and is important.
They have scored from nothing, but I think like the gaffer said at half-time, it is a big part of football and if you don’t defend set-pieces you are going to be in trouble.
We didn’t start great on that front, but at half-time at 2-0 down, if somebody offers you a point, you probably take it.
We are slightly happy with it but of course we wanted three points and I thought we should have got them today.
Ian Burchnall – credit to Port Vale
It absolutely feels like two points dropped, especially from the position we were in at 2-0 at half-time. I thought we played a really good first-half, I thought we looked really good defensively and had some good attacks, especially counter attacks. They were two good set-piece goals.
In the second-half, credit to Port Vale, they threw absolutely everything at us which they had to do. I think we could have been a little bit more efficient on the counter attack in the second-half but losing Josh March (through injury) was detrimental to that. The nature of the last goal and the nature of the draw, it probably feels like two points dropped.
This is certainly not an easy place to come. I’ve looked at their results, every game is a tight game, a close game, they are very rarely well beaten here so it is a really difficult place to come. But I thought we acquitted ourselves really well in the first-half.
In the second-half we knew what to expect and I thought for 25 or 30 minutes we weathered it really well. Long balls into the box, a lot of set plays, but I just felt maybe we could have kept the ball better in the second half when we needed to.
I thought at half-time you sensed the tension in the crowd, that’s what you want when you come away from home. For 20 or 25 minutes I thought we weathered it, they didn’t create big moments really, a few set pieces but we looked fairly controlled.
But the minute their first goal goes in, the roof goes off, the crowd get behind them and they push. Then of course you sense you are really going to have to be resilient for that last period.