New signing happy with first 45
New signing Chris Lines was pleased to complete his first 45 minutes in a Vale shirt after the former Sheffield Wednesday midfielder helped Vale to a comfortable 4-0 win over Newcastle Town yesterday.
The sweltering conditions at the Aspire Stadium made for difficult playing conditions but goals from Tom Pope, Louis Dodds and two from new signing Gavin Tomlin helped Vale on their way to a second successive pre-season victory.
Lines said: “I’m buzzing to sign here now and after playing 45 minutes you can see they’ve got a very decent team, that’s been two games and a lot of goals already.
“Obviously it’s only against lower league teams but it’s a good start for the boys.
“I want to play week-in week-out and last season I was unfortunate to get an injury which made me miss half the season but I am coming here and hopefully I can cement my place and try and help the team as well as possible.”
Micky Adams’ side have now flown to Dublin for their six-day tour of Ireland. The stay will include friendlies against Athlone Town and Bray Wanderers and Lines believes he couldn’t have joined at a better time as the midfielder looks to get to know his new teammates.
“I’m here now and I am looking forward to Dublin,” said Lines.
“It’s good that the tour is straight away, when you are a new player the pre-season tour is a good way to fit in with the boys, obviously spending a lot of time with the lads training and in and around the hotel, so I am looking forward to it.”
The 27-year-old added: “I know quite a few of the boys here already so it’s good.”
Lines will be targeting the starting 11 come August 3 when Vale welcome Brentford and the Bristol-born midfielder is confident he can use his previous League 1 experience to help Vale.
“I’ve played most of my career at League 1 so I have plenty of experience at that level, I think it’s going to be a decent league, we have got a chance of doing well.
“We’ve got nothing to worry about especially looking at the attacking options we have,” said Lines.
Lines added: “I’ve known Jennison for years now and you’ve got Kaid Mohamed on the other side, so there is a lot of options, for me as a midfielder that’s perfect, I like to pass the ball and I like to get forward as well.”