Port Vale 1-3 Barnsley reaction – “you have got to stick together…”
Reaction to Tuesday night’s match from Port Vale manager Darrell Clarke and Barnsley manager Michael Duff.
Darrell Clarke
It was a disastrous start; we’re picking the ball out of our net after 27 seconds. I thought we responded really well, though, got a good goal but then conceded another sloppy goal from a set-piece and the third takes a deflection and we didn’t get back into the game.
We huffed and puffed, there was nothing wrong with the effort or the endeavour but we just seem to be falling short against the top six to ten teams in this division. You look at the run that we are on and maybe there is a little bit of confidence lacking in the boys at times, but like I said to them in there, ‘get your heads up’, this is where you have got to stick together and we have shown that as a group over a period of time and we will show it again.
Nights like this are hard, but they are what make you as a footballer as well. I have been there as a manager on many occasions and the boys have just got to keep working hard on the training pitch, make the things we are not doing right better and stick together, which we will be doing. The fans were superb again tonight sticking behind us, we are not giving them a lot to shout about at the minute but it will turn and that comes with hard work.
Michael Duff
I thought we were excellent. Horrible game, there is no getting away from that. Not a classic. That pitch, I wouldn’t want to play on that every week. Grit, determination, and little bits of quality. That’s what’s seen us through.