Port Vale assistant boss delighted at team nailing game plan in 1-0 win over Charlton Athletic

Port Vale assistant manager Andy Crosby felt his team nailed their game plan perfectly in yesterday’s 1-0 victory over Charlton Athletic.

Dan Butterworth made the most of highly-suspect defending to beat George Dobson, Ryan Inniss and Sam Lavelle to fire the only goal in the 58th minute.

The Addicks only mustered one effort on target as they dropped to 14th in the League One table.

Crosby said: “I don’t think they had many opportunities, certainly not clear-cut ones. We handled the physical threat of [Jayden] Stockley and [Chuks] Aneke, when he came on. They’ve got pace on the side of the pitch which we defended really well one-v-one on and forced the ball into areas we wanted to.

“With Corey [Blackett-Taylor] coming into the Charlton team we spoke again pre-game about the threat of the counter attack from their left, we had to be really organised behind the ball. We changed a few things before the game so it was more Ben [Garrity] outside the box than Wozza [David Worrall]. We thought we could exploit them back post with crosses but we also had to be wary of the counter attack because he has got incredible pace.

“We were disciplined without the ball, compact without the ball – forcing the ball to certain areas of the pitch that we wanted it to go to – we’ve been really good at defending our box and nullifying the opposition’s threats.

“We were better in the second half on the transitions and counter-attacks – taking the moment when it materialised. Dan travels a long way with the ball and executes a great finish.

“I admire the resilience and togetherness, you don’t get that at a lot of football clubs. There are normally little cliques and groups that have little chats away from the group. This group haven’t got anything like that. It is a collective effort.

“You want to take advantage when there is a turnover and go forward as quickly as you can, but maybe we were too rushed first half and didn’t spend long enough with the ball.

“When you’re defending against a possession-based team you have to nullify that threat and stop the game becoming two or three minutes without the ball. We were better at that second half and just thought there would be one moment – thankfully Dan has carried the ball over a big distance, created the opportunity for himself and executed it really well.”

PICTURES: KYLE ANDREWS