Captain praises the Vale’s application as patience was rewarded in 2-0 win over Wolves U21s on Tuesday night.

• Tom Pett | “A professional performance”
• Port Vale captain reflects on his side’s 2-0 victory over Wolves U21s in the Papa Johns Trophy as the Vale secured top spot in Group C
• Pett: “The gaffer set us the challenge at the start of the night to go and finish top of the group and get a home draw in the next round, we have done that and to get a good performance for the 90+ minutes was professional.”

Port Vale captain Tom Pett praised the professionalism of his side as they secured a 2-0 victory over Wolves U21s and top spot in Group C of the Papa Johns Trophy on Tuesday night.

Reflecting post-match with iFollow the Vale after Mal Benning and Mipo Odubeko’s late goal sealed the points, Pett explained:

“The gaffer set us the challenge at the start of the night to go and finish top of the group and get a home draw in the next round, we have done that and to get a good performance for the 90+ minutes was professional.

I think in this day and age, young pros are all technically so sound and we watched the clips of Wolves U21s as we would do with any team and we knew they would be good on the ball and quick on the counter attack, but it was about how we could hurt them with the ball and that was probably the difference.

“We stuck to our gameplan, got there in the end with the two goals and the only frustration is that it wasn’t more from our perspective with some good football out there.”

Pett produced a typically reliable performance at the heart of midfield in his first appearance since September’s 1-1 draw at Barnsley.

And the Vale captain said the Papa Johns Trophy was helpful in aiding his return to full fitness.

“I had a stop-start pre-season with my operation and was playing catch up in that sense, so it is about getting up to speed as quick as I can,” Pett added.

“I had a little injury after the Barnsley game that put me back a little bit and to be fair TC [Tom Conlon], Ben [Garrity], Funso [Ojo] and Brad [Walker] have all been playing really well. So you have to wait your turn, train well and when you get the chance – like tonight – let the gaffer know that I am ready and waiting.”