Port Vale 2-0 Bristol Rovers reaction – well done to everyone!
Post-match reaction to Vale’s home win from Andy Crosby, Gavin Massey and Rovers boss Joey Barton.
It finished 2-0 on the day thanks to first-half goals from Ellis Harrison and Tom Pett. Despite several injuries, Vale held out to record a clean sheet and a welcome three points.
Here’s the reaction.
Interim manager Andy Crosby
I am delighted for the players; it has been a challenging period of time for the players, they have stuck together and come through challenging times.
I thought the supporters got behind the team really well at the start of the game – created a really good atmosphere – well done to everyone.
Getting in front and getting the next goal was vitally important – and they came from situations we spoke about. We wanted to put them under pressure, wanted to put them under stress. Could we take advantage of key moments in the game – I’d say that first-half we did.
We got the three points and that was the vital thing today.
Forward Gavin Massey
It’s massive; we have been dying for those three points for a long time and I think that’s carried on from Tuesday night’s performance at Ipswich.
Today, we got our just rewards, we deserved the three points. We had a big game plan, we knew the first 45 minutes were going to be important and we got the manager’s tactics down to a tee.
We got the two goals and then second-half could have been nervy, but I thought we had real control, when we sat in our shape it was hard to break down, so the points were well-deserved.
Opposition manager Joey Barton
I don’t think we fired on all cylinders, certainly in the first-half. We were fine with the ball without causing any real moments of danger and then we just get a bit sloppy in terms of we don’t defend a throw properly.
It leads to a corner and we go a goal down and I was disappointed with the response to that. We were second best to everything for the next five or 10 minutes after that and we gave them a bit of confidence and they managed to get a second goal in there.
I was tempted to make the changes a bit earlier, but I gave the lads time to respond and we’ve utilised the squad again and it was an opportunity to look at people with next season in mind.
Some lads have had auditions today. I’m happy with some parts of it but the result and the level of performance, certainly in the first period, was not at the expected standard for us going forwards.