Defender hurt by the defeat against the Alex

Carl Dickinson always wears his heart on his sleeve when out on the pitch wearing the white shirt and Saturday’s defeat to Crewe Alex hit him as hard as anybody.

One thing is for sure, he and all the players will be doing everything they can to put that game behind them and just to make sure they know the manager’s feelings, they were put through an extra tough training session today.

The Vale defender said: “I think people can take losing but the way we played was not good enough at all, from start to finish.

“Especially in the first half hour, we were awful. The game could have been finished by then which is really disappointing, especially in a local derby.

“All credit to Crewe, they wanted it more than we did and I think that showed with the score line.

“Everything that could have gone wrong, did. I have said before a game was probably just a bad day at the office, but I don’t think that one was. We just weren’t good enough from the first whistle.

“We need to roll our sleeves up and make sure something like that doesn’t happen again because to be honest it was embarrassing.

“It is up to us to make sure perform well because if we perform like we did on Saturday we will get our backsides felt.

“One of the biggest things for me was it looked like we had given up at times, that is something I hate to be associated with. It has hurt us all. 

“It’s a local derby and you want to win,  now we need to stick together and make sure on Saturday we go and give it a right good go.

“The manager ‘beasted’ us in today and rightly so. The only way it will stop is if we perform well. If we don’t perform well we will have stuff like we have had today.”

Sadly, after the game here at Vale Park on Saturday, Crewe Alex photographer Peter Warburton was taken ill and later passed away in hospital.

Dickinson has experienced that kind of grief himself in recent weeks and he was quick to send his best wishes to Peter’s family.

He said: “I have had it myself recently. It’s horrible and it puts everything into perspective. I want to send our condolences to his family on behalf of the lads and everyone here.

“It’s not about football, it is somebody’s life.”