Uche Ikpeazu’s spell at Vale Park comes to an end and he has returned to his parent club.
On loan Uche Ikpeazu has gone back to his parent club, Watford, making room perhaps for another loan striker, if Rob Page and his team can identify who they believe will be the right person for the job.
January has been allowed to go back after a frustrating couple of months for the striker, who began the season so well.thIkpeazu, whose loan isn’t officially up until the 9
He certainly caught the imagination of the Vale supporters and scored six goals, making himself a real fans’ favourite, but since his sending off at Burton in October, he has struggled to make a real impression.
Rob Page said: “He has gone back to Watford. Understandably he has been frustrated at the amount of minutes he has got but after his sending off (At Burton).
“Ajay has gone into the team and scored a few goals and I think to be fair to Ajay, you can’t put somebody back in to replace him when we were screaming out for a centre forward to score goals.
”Uche started off really well, dipped away a little bit, got sent off and Ajay came in. That is the nature of the game, somebody grabs the jersey, scores the goals and then you have got to be patient.
“It was frustrating from his point of view, because he has got pressure from Watford maybe saying he should be playing
“He has got pressure from himself and his agent, because his contract is up at the end of the season and he needs to be playing to put himself in the shop window.
“I have got to be true to the lads that are playing and doing well. I think Ajay brought us, and brings us, something totally different from what Uche does.
“I think he plays well in the team, whereas, all respect to Uche, sometimes it is a bit unpredictable whet we get from him.
“We don’t know from a consistent level what we are going to get from one minute to the next, so I think it is the right decision. It maybe frees up movement now to bring people in.”