Darren Moore has called on Port Vale to show “more impetus” ahead of their top end tussle against local rivals Walsall at Vale Park tomorrow lunch-time.
Ronan Curtis’ incredible late equalizer to salvage a 1-1 draw against Cheltenham Town gave Port Vale a slim one-point lead over the Saddlers and helped them reclaim the top place.
Walsall has closed the gap at the top thanks to the Valiants’ consecutive stalemates, and Moore acknowledges that his team needs to take the initiative more often.
“If you want to be successful in games like tonight (against Cheltenham), you have to go and get the initiative and go and take the game,” Moore said to the club.
“Even though we had a lot of possession and significant control over the game for a significant portion of it, you can’t just sit back and wait. You must go and accept it. The boys are being pushed harder by it.
“If there is one lesson to be learned from that, it is that we cannot simply expect that the aim will materialize. We must make it happen.
“I believe we went into enough dangerous positions and had enough of the ball, but we were unable to make it happen.
When games are like this, we have to have more impetus and demand more from each other.”
Moore also welcomed back Kyle John back from injury in Gloucestershire and explained that fellow wing-back Brandon Cover was rested.
Moore went on, “We brought Kyle back in,” “Brandon has played a lot of football and done a fantastic job for us.
We could have excluded him because, in my opinion, he has played a lot of football.
“Everything is fine and he will be ready to train and be part of the squad at the weekend.”
