Rob Page pleased with Port Vale victory in JPT but admits shortcomings
ByPA Sport Report
Published 01/09/2015 at 22:10 GMT
Port Vale manager Rob Page admitted the result was more pleasing than the performance after his team survived a late barrage to squeeze into the second round of the Johnstone's Paint Trophy after a 1-0 win over Carlisle.
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Uche Ikpeazu's third goal of the season proved the difference between the sides, but the Cumbrians went close to an equaliser on numerous occasions.
The visitors' nine-goal top scorer Jabo Ibehre had three efforts cleared off the line after coming on as a substitute, while Vale defended resolutely to keep a fifth clean sheet out of eight league and cup games so far.
Page said: "It's good to win when you don't play that well. We fell short of the standards we have set ourselves, but we are in the hat for the next round and that's the main thing.
"We've got to give credit to Carlisle because they came to pass the ball. They caused us some problems and we had to defend well to keep them out.
"I was impressed with Carlisle when I watched their game against Hartlepool. They have scored plenty of goals, albeit in a different division, but we've kept another clean sheet."
Carlisle grew in confidence after an uneventful first half, but Vale took the lead against the run of play on the hour after a fine interchange between Louis Dodds and Ikpeazu.
Dodds was the instigator with a determined run on the right of the penalty area and Ikpeazu smuggled the ball low inside Hanford's left-hand post with a right-foot shot.
Carlisle brought on Ibehre in the 68th minute and he was almost on the scoresheet five minutes later when his shot was cleared off the line by Ben Purkiss.
And the big striker was similarly unfortunate 10 minutes from time when his goal-bound shot was headed off the line by Ikpeazu following a right-wing corner from Danny Grainger.
It just was not Carlisle's night and that was underlined a minute from time when Ibehre had a third shot hacked off the line by Joel Grant.
Carlisle boss Keith Curle said: "We created enough chances in the last 20 minutes to win the game or at least take it to penalties.
"We came here with a game plan and it was working well until we went behind. We gave Vale the respect they deserved and nullified them in the first-half.
"The plan was to hold them at bay and hit them between the lines by passing the ball through midfield, but we lacked a bit of quality in the final third until later in the game.
"When the chances came we just couldn't get the ball over the line and we have to give Vale a lot of credit for that. They got their blocks in and defended their goal well, which is a very important part of any game.
"But I was heartened by a lot of what I saw. It's now all about preparing for our home game against Barnet on Saturday."
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