Boss delighted following Vale's victory over in-form Coventry

Micky Adams was understandably pleased with Vale’s performance yesterday against an in-form Coventry City side after the Valiants twice came from behind to win the game.

He praised his team’s second half showing and the way they worked hard to suppress a potent Sky Blues front line, before getting the better of things with a well-fought victory.

He said: “It was a terrific performance, especially in the second half. I am delighted to get the win and pleased to get to ten points.

“The game unfolded as I thought it would really, the front two of Clarke and Wilson are a real handful for any defenders and I felt we didn’t deal with them well enough in the first half.

“In the second half we got closer to them and stopped them from playing, we squeezed up the picth a bit more and won a few tackles.

“I thought it was like a practice match in the first half and that would suit Coventry because they have got good players who want to get the ball down, pass it and play.

“In the second half I got a real response, we squeezed up the pitch and won tackles – I think we won the first tackle of the second half, which set the tone.

“We put their defenders under pressure, turned them round a little bit more and got some decent set pieces into the box too and that is obviously the key to the win today.

“I don’t want to be disrespectful to Coventry with the players they have got, I feel their strengths are their attacking players and I do feel they present chances to you, even if they are winning games of football.

“We were going to get chances in the second half and we needed to take them if we could and luckily we took two.

“We could have had more but I think the key was how we dealt with their front lads and certainly I felt we did that better in the second half.

“Ben Williamson stretched their back four, which was exactly what we wanted him to do and then Birchy came on and not only has he got the winner, he has put in a real good shift on that right hand side as well. Both boys can look back at their performances and take a lot of credit from it.

“We have got good strikers at the club – we lost Lee Hughes in the morning with a virus so he wasn’t available to us, we lost Gavin Tomlin, he got injured in the reserve game earlier in the week so our options were limited.

“I was pleased with Louis Dodds last week and certainly I thought he put a shift in today, but I wanted us to get further up the pitch

“I wanted their back four to feel as uncomfortable as my central defenders looked at times and I thought it was a better performance in the second half.”