Striker says players will be giving their all

Striker Tom Pope is hoping as many of his team mates as possible can be persuaded with new deals in the summer if the team is to continue to improve.

Although the budget may yet dictate, Pope isn’t sure that bringing in young players is the way to go, especially with the mood of some of the fans this season.

What he is sure of, however, is that the players will be giving everything they can to ensure a good finish to the season, starting with Saturday’s game against Walsall.

He said: “You want to win every game you have got left, you don’t want to just see the season out, the gaffer won’t allow that, so we will just take each game as it comes.

“Personally, for me, I want to try and get to the twenty-goal mark if I can, but as long as the team are winning, that’s the main thing.

“We have got some very good players who are out of contract in the summer. Whether the gaffer is going to be here or not, or whoever is taking over, the players have go contracts to play for.

“Not just that, they need to showcase themselves to other clubs, so I think that will be good for the club going into the end of the season because there are a lot of players playing for contracts.

“Myself and Ben Williamson are still tied down, but there are a lot of players out of contract and for us to have a better season next time, we need to get a few of them signed up and tied down.

“Everybody knows about the gaffer scenario, but that’s down to him and the Chairman. I don’t really know what is going on behind the scenes, our job is to go out onto the pitch and do what we can out there.

“I am sure something will be talked about between now and the end of the season and hopefully it can be sorted as soon as possible.

“We have got some good players here who may attract clubs from higher leagues or bigger clubs in this league and we have got players like Billy Knott who have been here on loan.

“They are the kind of players that we need to be trying to keep hold of, but we need to have a good end to the season.

“If we can finish in the top eight or nine it will be good for whoever come in, or if the gaffer stays, it might be a good thing for when we are trying to get players in.

these quality players in I don’t know, that is down to the manager and the chairman to sort out. “We know the budget is going to be slashed, so whether we can get some of

“”We want to try and become a top club, but the budget is going to be the budget. You can bring some good young players in, but with the expectancy of the fans - we have seen this year that there are still people who are not happy with what is going on – then we can’t afford to do it.

“You look at Crewe, who bring all these youngsters through and the fans are tolerant with them, they allow them to grow and the club allows them to go out and play their football without putting too much pressure on them.

“Bringing youngsters into Port Vale it would probably be the wrong way to go with how the fans are at the minute.”