It's a "nine-game season' says the gaffer
Micky Adams believes the team can turn things around and get back to winning ways during the final few games of the season and says their season begins tonight at the Memorial Ground.
The Vale boss said: “The facts are that we have got a nine-game season now. Saturday has gone and it is out of the way, we have analysed, dissected it, criticised it, took the positives out of it and we move one, that’s the way you have to approach it.
“Some of the results went for us, but as I said on Saturday, we can’t keep saying that. It has got to the point now where we have got to kick back into action, and I think we will get a response.
“Football is a results industry. Players’ confidence fluctuate either through goals hitting the back of your net or results going against you, so confidence is a premium.
“It is no use me denying it and saying that players are not playing without confidence, because they are. The same players that were performing so stoutly at the beginning of the season are just not performing at the moment.
“They have to get back to how it was and help themselves in many respects. That can change, at this level it can change quite quickly and quite dramatically and players’ performances can change quite dramatically.
“You have got to keep going and keep believing and I have got full confidence in them to come out the other side of it and go again and it starts against Bristol Rovers.”
The Vale boss doesn’t believe there is any need to do things any differently than Vale have been doing up to this point in the season, the things that have been successful thus far.
He said: “We do the same things, we have done that from the start of the season and it has been very successful for us so I don’t see the need for change things dramatically.
“Some things might have changed because of performances and results, but there is only us that can change it and I have got every confidence in the dressing room.
“It is a nine-game league now and you can forget what has gone on, it is a nine-game league scenario and we have got to try and finish top of that league. If we can then we will achieve all of our aims and ambitions for the season.”
Bristol Rovers have turned their fortunes around a bit and John Ward must take a lot of credit for the work he has done there – that is something that Micky Adams appreciates.
He knows just how difficult a game it is likely to be, but he is confident he has the players in the dressing room to do the job.
Adams said: “They have had mixed results of late. I saw them go to Rotherham and beat them earlier on in his reign. He’s got them organised, they are quite rigid in their shape, they sit people behind the ball and they are very difficult to break down.
“They beat Exeter last week, so that tells you that he has got them going a little bit and he has got them playing with a bit of confidence, and we have got to find that from somewhere.
“It can change, believe you me, it can change in an instant and whilst we know it is a difficult game, we have got to turn it round ourselves.”