Boss expecting a hard game against York City on Saturday

Vale boss Micky Adams is well aware of the problems Saturday’s visitors to Vale Park can cause his side, having watched them at first hand in Monday night’s FA Cup replay at Wimbledon.

He said: “Having watched them, York should have won the game against AFC Wimbledon in the ninety minutes and I feel the sending off cost them.

“On Monday night they played very, very well and there was lots of movement in their team, lots of people that can handle the ball.

“They are going to cause us real problems and we have got to be on our game to combat their strengths.

“From a defensive point of view, I still maintain that we have got players to cause them problems as well.

“From what I saw on Monday night they are a really good side and Gary (Mills) has put together a decent side there.”

Defender John McCombe returned from a three-match suspension and will be considered for selection, and Richard Duffy could also return to the starting line-up, but it looks like skipper Doug Loft will miss out.

“John was outstanding at the beginning of the season.” said Adams.“ He has had a little bit of rest and a little bit of work, so that won’t have hurt him.

“He travels in from Huddersfield every day so we have given him a bit of time off over the weekend, so he will come back fresher than ever I would imagine.

“He has been frustrated but that is nothing that could be avoided, but he can bring that experience back to the back four and we will welcome him back.

“We got a clean sheet last week at Southend, but I alluded to it after the game that I wasn’t necessarily happy with some of the displays that we saw.

“Regardless of the fact that we got a nil-nil, John McCombe will be an option for me to go into the back four and we will see what we can do with the rest of the team.

“Richard Duffy has had a full week in training. We got him back to sit on the bench last weekend and gave him a little taster at the end. He’s had a full week’s training so he is fit and raring to go.

“Doug Loft hasn’t trained this week, so he will be classed as very, very doubtful and I would like to see him have a full week of training before we actually throw him back in again.

“We don’t want the mistake to happen that happened last time, so you would have to say he is effectively ruled out.”