Midfielder determined to keep his place in the side

Port Vale winger, Chris Birchall admitted his delight at scoring for the second consecutive game but could not hide his disappointment after the 2-1 defeat to Rochdale on Saturday.

The midfielder started the game after replacing the injured Byron Moore and scored the opening goal of the game at Spotlands, before Rochdale went on to win the match through Ian Henderson’s first-half penalty and a second-half goal from Nathaniel Mendez-Laing.

That goal was the 31-year-old’s second in less than a week, after he scored the second goal in the 2-0 victory against Blackpool on Tuesday night.

Speaking to the media after the game, he spoke about the wonderful week he has endured.

“Personally, it has gone great. It is always nice to get back into the team especially with a couple of goals. I was pleased with the start, maybe kind of expecting it after Byron being injured and being away from home.”

“Pagey (Rob Page) pulled me and said just go out and do what you can do and help the team and luckily for me, I have got a goal, I am happy and I just want to be in the team as much as I can and hopefully that will be the case next week.”

“Sometimes with injuries it gives opportunities to others, just like Dicko (Carl Dickinson) has got sent off, it has given the opportunity for maybe Remie (Streete) to come in and McGivern to go to left-back.

“Personally I would like to play, I always want to be on the pitch but sometimes when you are on the sidelines watching it is a little frustrating, but for me all I can do is try and go out and do what I can when I am playing and luckily I have got a couple of goals.” 

As Birchall mentioned the absence of Carl Dickinson will give other players in the squad the opportunity to prove themselves but the midfielder admitted that the captain will be a hard player to replace.

“He is our captain. He has played well, considerably well this year.

“I think he has taken the captaincy on his shoulders really when last year it may have been affecting his performances, he will be the first to say but this year he has been phenomenal and he will be a big miss.”

After a run of six games unbeaten in all competitions prior to Saturday’s defeat to Rochdale, the Trinidad and Tobago international says that the team is determined to prove that the defeat was only a blip when they face Exeter City in the second round of the Emirates FA Cup on Sunday afternoon.

“I think you can see that we are creating chances and we probably should have gone 2-0 up before the penalty decision anyway.

“We are creating chances and we have a striker on form in Ajay  and we are confident, going into games thinking that we will win it, whereas before we were going into games hoping not to lose the game. We will be going to Exeter confident of getting into the next round.”