But boss says we haven't done anything yet

Vale boss Micky Adams was impressed by his side’s performance against AFC Wimbledon last night and paid tribute to his players after the game.

He said: “I thought we thoroughly deserved the win. I was a little bit surprised by their team and their team shape, but we got to grips with it very early and we got the ball wide.

“The early goal settled us down a little bit and we had a good night. It was a thoroughly professional performance with some great individual performances as well, but more importantly for me, a great team performance.

“We looked as though we had a bit of pride as well, even towards the end my goalkeeper wants to keep a clean sheet, my centre halfs were heading balls clear.

“There was one great header from Tom Pope when a corner came in as well so it’s a collective thing keeping clean sheets, but I think our mentality now is that we have got a bit of pride as well and that is important.

“As I said before, the shape that Wimbledon took was a shape not to get beat and to not get beat heavily, which surprised me a little bit because I think if I was bottom of the table and in that position I would want to go and win a game of football.

“But we can only beat what is in front of us and we did that quite comfortably and as I said, with some terrific performances out there.

Top scorer Tom Pope has taken many of the headlines this season, but in two home matches in which the team has scored six goals, none have come from the 27-goal man.

That just goes to show the strength in depth at the club and that however tight he is marked, there are others who are more than capable of finding the net.

Adams continued: “Tom Pope has contributed 27 goals this season, but the rest have been spread about the team so while they are keeping Tom Pope quiet and paying him special attention, there are other people to worry about now.

“Our fire power is terrific, but we can’t take our forward play for granted, it is like our defending, we have to work at it.

“We have to make sure that in the right areas, at the right times we do the right things. If we do that and get enough balls into the box it’s not only about Tom Pope, it’s about everybody else.”

The Vale boss still insists there is a lot of hard work to be done and he is now focussing on Saturday’s match at Underhill, where Vale take on a resurgent Barnet.

“We haven’t done anything yet. We have fifty-nine points, we are four points clear at the top, but we have got another difficult game to focus on on Saturday and that’s what we will do.

“We have got a little bit of pride, we’ve got something to hang on to now, but is for other teams to catch us now and that might not be as easy as it seems.”