20 March 2021

Darrell Clarke pleased with Port Vale’s ability to cope under pressure

20 March 2021

Port Vale manager Darrell Clarke was delighted with the way his side handled the pressure in their vital 1-0 win at fellow strugglers Colchester

Vale claimed victory at the U’s to pull 10 points clear of danger thanks to Devante Rodney’s superb 19th-minute winner.

Rodney collected Tom Conlon’s pass and curled a superb right-foot shot past Shamal George into the far side of the net, sealing a crucial victory for Vale.

Clarke said: “I’m really pleased. We’ve won two big games where a lot of questions were rightly asked and we’ve answered them, in the last two games.

“We’re delighted to get the clean sheet and the 1-0.

“We had our chances and we hit the post. It was a scrappy game but you have to find ways to win games of football in League Two I’m afraid, certainly when the pitches aren’t great.

“The lads have defended well; the keeper has had to make one tremendous save, but other than that we’ve defended superbly as a team.

“We’re just concentrating on winning the next game.

“There are going to be lots of twists and turns, but all I’d say is that there are big questions answered in another big game for us.

“There was a lot of pressure – the lads were well aware of that – and the lads have handled that pressure superbly.”

Vale were the better side in the first half, with Theo Robinson twice going close to adding to their lead.

Colchester keeper George made an excellent save to deny Conlon at point-blank range after half-time and Rodney’s effort smacked a post.

And, although Vale keeper Scott Brown made a fine save to deny Colchester substitute Aramide Oteh’s header late on, Vale claimed victory.

Colchester interim first-team coach Wayne Brown said: “We need to turn up to games and the first half was disappointing because we didn’t lay a finger on them.

“Too many first and second balls were lost and we played the game quite naively, in that we probably played to their strengths, which we’d talked about and identified.

“But I was happy with the second half and the response that the lads made and there were a lot of positives to come out of that.

“It was a disappointing outcome and we were obviously hoping for the three points – that was what we’d done our work to achieve but it wasn’t to be.

“If I’m honest, I was happy with the second-half display and I thought the lads showed a fantastic reaction.

“We dominated pretty much the whole of the second half, had territory in their half, created chance after chance and made the keeper work.”

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