Defender says Vale are well prepared for the visit of his former club

Vale defender Chris Robertson says Vale have prepared well ahead of tonight’s game against Preston North End, and he knows it is likely to be a tough one.

The former Preston defender says: “It is like any game, it is going to be a tough game. They are up at the right end of the table, where we want to be so it will be a good battle I’m sure.

“They beat the league leaders recently, but if you look back to the game we played them, we should have drawn or beat them as well, so that’s something to look at, but we have done our homework on them and have prepared well for the game.

“We have been grinding the results out really. We have played to our strengths at times, we have had to adapt.

“The main thing is to get the three points and we have been doing everything we can to get there – sometimes it has not been pretty, but we have got the points on the board and that is the main thing.

“Richard Duffy has come in for the last two games and has done well. Football is a squad game and people get injured, are inconsistent or have a drop in form and someone else steps in.

“Everyone knows their job, you just have to click together, keep strong as a team, remember it is a team game and everyone on the pitch wants those three points.

“You concentrate on your own game, but it takes a bit of time to form a partnership with whoever I is, but it’s the same king of position, the same kind of player who you are going to be playing next to, you have got the same kind of mentality.

“We know our job as centre halfs, we don’t want to mess around too much, we just want to defend and conceded as few goals as possible.

A win tonight could possibly lift Vale into the top six so how does that affect players going into the game?

“We just take one game at a time and we never look further than the next game. Winning games gives you that confidence and if we go up the table it will give us that boost.

“At times we feel like we can beat anyone, so we have just got to keep our feet on the ground really and keep doing the things we are doing, keep getting those points and I am sure we will do alright.

“We can hold our own in this league, nobody has battered us and we are all stepping up to the plate, so I think the main thing is getting a bit of consistency.

“We are on a good run at the moment and we have go to keep doing that, keep maintaining that and keep putting points on the board and who knows where we can end up?”