Games are coming quick and fast but that doesn't worry Darren Purse

Vale play the second of seven games in a three-week spell tonight when they take on Exeter City and the more experienced players in the squad could be excused if they wanted a rest.

That wouldn’t do for defender Darren Purse, however, as he prefers to play Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, as he explained.

In between times he does things with the family and he isn’t scared of getting his hands dirty either.

He said: “I personally enjoy it more than having free weeks, you are concentrating on games which are coming thick and fast.

“It is a lot easier to concentrate on a game when they come like this rather than wait a week for it and I would much rather play in a game than have the training all week.

“Obviously we are usually off on a Sunday and a Wednesday and that’s when you should rest up, but I have things to do with my family that take up some of my time.

I have got an eleven year old boy who plays football, so I go and watch him play on a Sunday morning, so that’s usually my Sundays done. “On Sundays

“On a Wednesday, my daughter has got a horse so I have to go and help muck out with her. We generally do family things.

“I do like to play a game of golf, but when the weather is like it is at the moment you never really get the chance to do that, so I will do that more in the summer.

“In the days coming up to games you have to make sure that at 3.00pm on a Saturday or at 7.45pm on a Tuesday you are spot on.

“It is tough when you are playing two games in seventy-two hours and is it tough to get the recovery in, especially at my age, but you just have to get on with it.

“That’s what you play football for, to be able to play on a Saturday afternoon or a Tuesday night and it’s all about preparing and making sure you are as fit as you can be.

“You are always going to be carrying little niggles and little knocks, but it is good to get out there on the pitch and get about when you are playing.

“I still set myself targets even now, and one of would be a nice promotion coming towards the end of my career, that would be fantastic.

“I do want to carry on playing after this season, but it would be a great achievement to come here in January and go on and help the club get promoted.

“There is a lot of work to be done and we can’t rest on our laurels yet. There are still a lot of points to pick up and we need to reproduce the form we showed at the weekend at Torquay and in previous weeks.

“You look at the performance against Morecambe when we got beaten one-nil – we didn’t deserve to lose the game, so the performances are there.

“You are going to get your blips but it is all about how you bounce back and the way we bounced back on Saturday at Torquay was fantastic and we’ve got another test with a top seven side coming to Vale Park tonight.”