Port Vale manager Micky Adams is not afraid to drop first-team regulars from Vale’s starting line-up, that’s the message from defender Chris Robertson as Vale look to bounce back from Saturday’s 3-1 defeat to Oldham Athletic this weekend when league favourites Wolves travel to Vale Park.

Robertson explained: “No one is safe, even the captain is not safe, it doesn’t matter who you are, the manager is big enough and brave enough to pick whoever he wants, he’s the manager and everyone has got to go by that. 

“You are meant to give one hundred percent on the pitch and if you’re not doing that or are having a bad time then that’s fair enough, you make a change whoever that is.”

Vale have so far failed to keep a clean-sheet this season, Robertson reckons it is fine margins of error that are costing the defensive back-line goals.

“Every mistake we are doing at the moment seems to be punished, we need to be tight as a team, more compact as a unit, work harder to stop crosses coming in and stop shot coming in at our goal.

“You can’t give teams the amount of chances that we’re giving them.”

Vale started brightly against Oldham last Saturday despite falling behind early, Robertson believes Lee Hughes’ penalty miss gave Oldham the momentum going into the second-half.

“I think it is important we take our chances to ease ourselves at the back.

“Our heads seem to go down after the penalty and their heads seem to go up, it is just small little things at the moment that are not going in our favour.

“When it ticks it will be much easier for us.”

Robertson, who signed a two-year contract with Vale this summer upon leaving Preston North End has been a regular at the heart of the Vale defence. The centre-back insists it is important Vale sort out their defensive issues early into the campaign.

“It is a new team coming together but it is better to sort these things out now and nail them down now early on in the season so we can improve as a team and get the points that we want,” he told Valiant Player.