Town 2 Port Vale 1
Saturday 16th August 2008
PUMA Youth Alliance - Sundorne Sports Village

Town: Dave Maguire GK, RB Leon Miles, LM Aaron Gibson, CB Harry Hooman (c), CB Wayne Farmer, RM Steve Davey, LM Ashley Watson (John Taylor), CM Will Richards, CM Tom Dix, F Andre Gray (Dave Howarth), F Jan Coulston (Gareth Partridge)

Subs: Liam Flynn, Tom Bachelor

Goals: J. Coulston, A. Gray

Town's youth side got off to a winning start at Sundorne Sports Village with a 2-1 victory over Port Vale.

Town's PUMA League form was poor last season and it looked like that might continue after they went behind after 10-minites.

Things looked like they would get worse 10 minutes later when Vale were awarded a penalty after a foul in the box but Dave Maguire pulled off an important save to keep Town in the game.

Nigel Vaughan's side responded to this and started playing with a bit more confidence and took the game to the visitors. The half-time break saw a few harsh words from Vaughan and his staff and the lads took this advice into the second half.

Town played with much more purpose and a physical bite and this paid off with Jan Coulston scoring to level the scores.

It was the home side who continued to be on top and they restricted Vale to just the one effort in the second half. The pressure from Town paid off when Andre Gray hit an unstoppable over head kick from a John Taylor cross.

Town continued to push and had chances to add to their lead but in the end had to do with the 2-1 victory.

After the game Town's head of youth Nigel Vaughan was pleased with the way his team had responded: "It was a super win as Port Vale have proved to be an achilles heel to us over the past few seasons and have been better than us.

"We are playing our games at the Sports Village as that's what the manager suggested we do. They really took care of us and Danny the groundsman did a superb job on the pitch.

"We have a few injuries as the moment but we started with what was our strongest team and it looked like it might be the same old storey. After about 10 minutes we were 1-0 down and Port Vale deserved to be in the lead as they were well on top of us.

"Then about 15 minutes after there was an incident which may have proved to be the turning point of the game. Port Vale played a short corner in and Tom Dix's has come out quite fiercely and caught their lad to give away a penalty. Football is a lot about psychology and you tell the lads to visualise things before a game and I'd spoken to Dave Maguire on the Friday and had mentioned to him to visualise saving a penalty and to be fair to him he saves the penalty kick. That could have put us 209 down and I think that might have been the end of the game.

"Following that we had chances with Andre Gray hitting the post but overall I was pleased to get in at half-time only 1-0 down as it was something that we could sort out.

"There were a couple of harsh words said in the dressing room as I felt that 5 players out of the 11 weren't playing good enough. I said my piece and to be fair to the lads they responded too it.

"In the second half we came out and got in their faces and got a bit more physical, game them no room and played football at the right times.

"We got back on level terms after Steve Davey has knocked the ball into John Taylor, he's then slid the ball to put Jan Coulston in on goal, he's taken a touch and then turned the defender before hitting the ball into the far corner to make it 1-1.

"Port Vale only had the one chance in the second half and that shows how much we got on top of them and got in their faces. The lads have to learn from that and understand that when we get physical them we become a much better team than when we give the opposition room.

"Leon Miles played a great diagonal ball out to find John Taylor and he's done ever so well to turn the defender inside and then out before whipping a great ball in, it's bounced into Andre Gray who has chested it and then overhead kicked it into the far corner. I played head tennis with Andre the other day and I kept telling him to take a touch instead of just volleying the ball or doing over head kicks. If I hadn't played head tennis with Andrew I would have said that his goal may have been a fluke but it's not as he keeps doing that in training.

"We could have added to our lead after Tom Dix had a long shot which the keeper tipped over and Andre Gray had a great chance from a corner but just got over the ball a little too much.

"All in all I was really pleased with Saturday's result and the way the lads responded to the coaches. We need to set our standards now and look to keep clean sheets and continue to get results."