Port Vale manager John Askey emphasised how he wishes for everybody to give it their all against Man City in order to walk away from the Etihad with their head held high in what will be a very challenging affair.
The Citizens are currently holding the domestic treble and Askey stated that although he knows it was be a difficult game, he hopes his team will be able to compete and be able to give the over 8,000 travelling fans something to cheer about.
For that same reason he expressed how he doesn’t intend to set out a side that sits back to defend for 90 minutes, instead wanting his players to try and hold their own and send the fans home with a smile on their face.
The gaffer explained how he wishes for the players to take the game 10 minutes at a time, and work from there in order to maintain as much control over the match as they can.
The boss also stressed the importance of fitness lately, as the club come out the back of the hectic Christmas period, but echoed the feeling of excitement felt around the club.
He said: “It’s one just to try and enjoy, it’s not always the greatest experience if you’re not competing but hopefully we can, I’m just pleased for the football club, it keeps the feel good factor going that’s been here since Carol and Kevin came in, so win, lose or draw, it’s something that we’ve not done for quite some number of years.
“It’s about getting there and seeing how the game goes, probably approach it that every 10 minutes you’re looking at where you are in the game, hopefully first 10 minutes you keep them quiet and then go onto the next 10 minutes and keep concentration and keep doing that for the 90 minutes.
“We’ll try and have a go, because it's pointless going and just defending for 90 minutes and not giving the supporters something to shout about so hopefully we can.
“It’s [the game] come after a really busy period, it’s probably the last team you want to play when you’ve played so many games but everybody’s. really looking forward to it.”
The gaffer praised the attitude of his squad when discussing the process of deciding his starting 11, stating how professional they all are, with the biggest difficulty being having to leave himself out of the side.
He added how everyone has been positive in the dressing room this season so far, and although you want players to want to be playing the attitudes they’ve shown have been great.
Vale are unbeaten in their last five outings and Askey expressed his pleasure with recent performances, but added how he hopes to start getting more wins in the league, an area that can regain central focus after tomorrow’s game.
He said: “It was difficult leaving myself out [the team] really, but no the majority of the lads know roughly what the team’s going to be, there might be the odd one that’s a little bit disappointed but I think we more or less know what it’ll be.
“They’re a good group and they do get on with it and that’s been the case all season really, there’s been one or two disappointed and you’d expect that and you want that… they are good pros and they’ve not caused me much trouble at all.
“We’ve been playing well, the game on Wednesday against Macclesfield, you could see players were tired and that had an effect on the game, it’s still another game that we should’ve won, but it’s now five games that we haven’t lost and we should’ve won more games than we have which is disappointing but they’ve played some good football.”