Port Vale assistant manager – you can get a double promotion…

Port Vale assistant manager Andy Crosby says the team can approach the second-half of the season with a positive mindset after a good start to life in League One.

You can become Championship players if you want, you can get a double-promotion – it’s within touching distance – so don’t let the opportunity go…

Crosby told the media: “With having a short summer break between the Play-Off final and returning in early July with a small group of players, we looked at this as a gap in the calendar to give everyone a refresh, to go away and reflect on what they had done in the first half of the season as players and as staff.

“We have got to this stage with 24 games played, we are 10th in the league and have done really well over the past 24 months, but football is all about the future and how we continue to progress.

“That was our message to the players this week; we had a 40-minute meeting with the players yesterday to say we had done well, take the pat on the back, but you can become Championship players if you want, you can get a double-promotion – it’s within touching distance – so don’t let the opportunity go and we need to get better in these areas of the pitch.

“The gap from League Two to top end League One is really big, but for our individual players and for us as a football club that has to be our aim, to go and play Championship football. Some of the players will do, some won’t, the club might get there, the club might not get there, but if we haven’t got the ambition, drive and consistencies to try to get there, then what’s the point in being here?

“To get into the top six in the next 22 games is a big, big ask, but why can’t it be done? Why can’t we do it? There is nothing stopping us, we can only stop ourselves by convincing ourselves we can’t do it, so we have to improve, individually and collectively, we have to get better on the training pitch, our performances have to get better, and if we do all of those things, we are giving ourselves the best chance. If we don’t think we can do it, we will never do it.”