Grew calls for patience tonight

Vale’s assistant manager Mark Grew is surprised that tonight’s visitors to Vale Park are not higher up in the league than they actually are, as he was expecting big things from them this season.

He said: “I picked three or four teams at the start of the season who I thought would be up there and Bristol Rovers were one of them.

“I watched them three or four weeks ago against Burton Albion and they looked to be lacking in confidence.

“They had two players sent off on Saturday against Rochdale, which has given them more headaches, but I think we have got to be patient tonight.

Results haven’t gone their way up to now, but Vale won’t be taking things for granted and they know they need to get back to their best if they are to take the three points tonight.

“I think they are going to be coming here looking for a draw like a lot of teams have since the start of the season, so we must be patient and not have lapses at the back.

“That has cost us here a few times, when we keep thinking about going forward and we lose concentration at the back and concede, which makes it twice as difficult for us.

“It is all about getting a result tonight. People say we haven’t won for so long, but we haven’t lost either. It’s not like we have lost three on the bounce.

“Okay, we have drawn games that we probably should have won, but we haven’t lost. On saying that, we do need to get the three points on the board tonight.