Port Vale boss Micky Adams spoke to his club's official website and The Sentinel ahead of his side's League One match against Carlisle at Brunton Park tomorrow afternoon, Adams saying the Valiants are currently trying to find a winning formula:
“There is nobody in the squad that is completely out of the picture, we’re trying to find a winning formula at the minute. As I said the other night, the effort and application for the game was there, it was spot on. We made mistakes, but regardless of whether you are playing a League Two club or a League One club, you’ve still got to get the basics right and at times we are not doing that. We need to tighten up in all areas.
"We always have to come from behind which is a problem for us. We have to make sure we can get that first goal. When you chase games you leave yourself vulnerable, particularly when you are getting bodies forward. You can look a bit disjointed. It would be nice to be in a game where we get the first goal and can retain our shape and composure and see games through. Our realistic target is to stay in the league. While I may get criticised and told I am being negative, I live in the real world.
“We want to retain our status in the division. We will have to battle our way to do that. Are we good enough to finish in the top six? Looking at it, probably not at this moment. But that doesn't mean to say we stop trying to achieve that. We have to work as hard as we possibly can. I think in the games so far, particularly in the home games, we have done all right. Away from home we have let ourselves down a couple of times with our concentration and a little bit of slack defending. I think what it shows is you have to be concentrating at all times. If you do that, you have a chance.
“Any season has its peaks and troughs. One minute you are flying high and you are confident because you are getting wins, then you are losing or drawing, dropping points for every mistake you make, and confidence ebbs away. That is probably what you have seen with us so far. But I am hoping the win against Bury will turn us around. Looking at the players in training over the last couple of days, they have been terrific. It's as though there is a big weight off their shoulders."
“Daniel Jones has had a scan on his groin and it shows he has go some damage so it will be two to three weeks. He is not available for Carlisle. We don’t know how he recovers as he has not had a major injury since he has been at the football club – he’s had little niggles. When he has he has normally been quite quick at recovering, so we would expect him back, if not for Leyton Orient, for the game against Coventry the following week.
“Carl Dickinson can slot in at left back, so it’s not a problem for us, but they are two different types of left back. Daniel is more of a forward thinking defender and Carl has a pride in his defending and wants to keep clean sheets. I’m not saying Jonesy doesn’t, but he will offer us that threat going forward, whereas I’m not sure Dicko does that, so what you get from one of them, you lose from the other. My priority at the moment is to get a clean sheet, so maybe Carl Dickinson at the moment is the best choice.
“We have had Carlisle watched at their last game down at Brentford. They have had a problem keeping clean sheets and losing games of football. Against Brentford they adopted a style of play that suited the players they have got, although they will have to change the team around from last week. They have lost a couple of players, one going back to Charlton and Danny Butterfield will not be available for them.
“They have got a couple of players in this week in Leon McSweeny and also Conor Townsend from Hull – a left back and a right back if you like. They are having the same problems as us at the moment, keeping clean sheets, but they went down to Brentford and battled really hard. I’ve had a look at the game myself and they battled really, really hard – they could have lost it but did enough on the day to get a clean sheet and a point, so it is never easy going to Carlisle, everybody knows that.”