Hard work pays off as Dave Kevan hails Port Vale win

Posted Wednesday, October 28, 2020 by PA

Port Vale assistant manager Dave Kevan praised his side’s positive reaction following their 2-1 win over Cheltenham.

Second-half goals from club captain Leon Legge and midfielder David Worrall saw Vale come from behind at Vale Park after striker Andy Williams had put the visitors ahead just after the restart.

Goalkeeper Scott Brown was instrumental in the Valiants’ turnaround as he pulled off a number of impressive saves either side of half-time and helped them secure a second consecutive league victory.

That result moves the club within just two points of the Sky Bet League Two automatic promotion places ahead of a trip to struggling Southend on Saturday.

“Cheltenham are good side and you can see why they’ve had such a good run of form and we’ve had to work very hard tonight to get three points,” said a delighted Kevan at full-time.

“He (Brown) kept us in it first half, he’s done his job for us tonight and we know he’s capable of that.

“The gaffer got into the boys at half-time and tried to sort one or two things out and other than conceding the early goal I thought second half we were much better.

“Wozza (David Worrall) is capable of those moments of brilliance and it was an excellent finish from him.”

Michael Duff was left to rue a number of missed chances throughout both halves as the Cheltenham boss watched his side throw away their initial lead after dominating the opening stages of the game.

Robins forward Williams registered his fourth goal of the season with the opener but was denied several others by Brown, including an impressive double-save and a header which hit the woodwork early on.

And with games against fellow early promotion hopefuls Forest Green and Carlisle to come over the next few weeks, the Cheltenham manager stressed that his side must be more clinical in the final third if they are to get more positive results and challenge for promotion again this season.

“We’ve got 1-0 up, given a really poor goal away – how it’s 1-1 after 67 minutes I don’t know. It feels like we haven’t got out of second gear again,” he added.

“I thought we were good for an hour today but you need to put teams to bed when you’re on top.

“They’re a great set of lads but they need to demand a bit more from each other because there’s a few times now where we’ve played quite well but we didn’t get the result.

“Even at times where we’ve gone two or three (goals ahead), it should be four or five – we need to be more ruthless.”