Boss philosophical following defeat
Micky Adams was philosophical following Vale’s first pre-season defeat last night and was keen to reiterate what he has said many times before regarding the importance of pre-season matches.The Vale boss said: “It was a fitness exercise first and foremost and it always is, whether you win, lose, or draw, but we tired dramatically in the second half.
“Whether that had something to do with Derby picking up the tempo of the game or introducing the quality players that they did, we were certainly second best in the second half.
“But in the first half I was really pleased with us. I thought we were a threat going forward and we had some great deliveries from set pieces which we capitalised on.
“Generally I was pleased with the performance, but as I said, in the second half with the introduction of the substitutes, they really got after us.”
Asked about the quality of set pieces by midfielder Chris Lines, the manager denied that was the only reason he was brought in from Sheffield Wednesday.
He said: “Obviously you don’t bring people in just because they can take a good free kick and a corner, there are other aspects of his game that we are pleased with.
“But certainly that’s a real bonus for us and any opportunity to put the ball into the box with a little bit of quality is a great opportunity to score, so we will certainly utilise his skill from set-pieces.
The manager is not happy with the depth of his squad and will be looking to bring in a couple more players before the season starts in earnest on 3rd August.
He explained: “We are still a couple of players short of formulating a squad for League One, but we will continue to work and try our best to get them in the building before
the start of the season.
“We are looking at a couple of players in training and we will maybe look at a couple of players at Kidderminster on Friday.
“I don’t want to talk about specific positions or specific players, other than it doesn’t take a genius to work out we are perhaps a centre half light.”