Loft a doubt for the visit of The Shrews

Vale captain Doug Loft is rated ‘fifty-fifty’ by Micky Adams for Saturday’s home encounter with Shrewsbury Town, but the manager is confident if the midfielder doesn’t make it, he has players who can fill the void.

Loft missed Monday night’s FA Cup win against Shortwood United and the manager was hoping he would be fit for Saturday, but if not he knows he has other options.

The Vale boss said: “I feel as though we have got enough cover in that position, but in an ideal world I want my skipper out there, I think he has been outstanding this season wherever I have asked him to play.

“In the past few weeks he has played on that left hand side, but I don’t want anybody to get the impression that he is a left winger, because he is certainly not.

“He is a midfield player that tucks in and can break wide and as we have seen with a of of teams this year, if it gets a little bit overloaded in there he is quite capable of tucking in and balancing off what we want to do with our formation.

“In an ideal world I would want him out there, but if he’s not then as we saw the other night, we have got people who can step in.

“He is one of those types of lads who just wants to play and he will play wherever the manager wants him to play, which is great for me.

“He doesn’t query what I want him to do, he is quite happy doing the job we set him, although he sees himself as a central midfield player.

“We utilise him the best we can, sometimes we play him as right back as well.”