Gaffer makes sure everybody is fully aware of their responsibilities

After shipping three goals in each of their two previous matches, the players have been working hard on the training pitch this week to put things right.

Boss Micky Adams has put them through their paces and made sure that each and every one of them knows what their responsibilities are and he is expecting to start to pay dividends, starting this weekend against Swindon Town.

Micky said: “We have had a week of looking where we are going wrong and at every aspect of our play, and certainly from a defensive point of view.

“We have looked at who is in the team when we concede goals, who is not in the team, who has got the biggest percentage of clean sheets when they are in the side – we have analysed everything this week, it has been quite boring really.

“One thing for sure is we can’t keep conceding three goals and expect to win games of football, it’s madness.

“If I look at the goals last week, I think Cody McDonald’s goal I will accept, the other two I can’t accept.

“They are not team goals that have been scored against us, they are from individual errors and people not doing their jobs.

“We have had a look at that scenario this week as well, but it ultimately adds up to the fact that we are conceding too many goals from an individual point of view.”

Under Micky Adams, Vale have always been quite tight at the back, especially on set-pieces, and the boss wants to get back to that train of thought.

He said: “We have always prided ourselves that we don’t generally concede from set-pieces, we are nice and tight and solid and everybody knows their jobs.

“It could be argued that people have come in from other football clubs if you like and they don’t really understand what we need and what we do and our standards that we set, but this week we have nailed that down.

“We have gone back to basics again, everybody is aware of their roles and responsibilities now, particularly from set pieces, and hopefully we will get better.”