Dino Maamria hails Burton ‘resilience’ in win at Port Vale

Posted Sunday, March 19, 2023 by PA

Manager Dino Maamria was thrilled to get one over on Port Vale once again after Burton came from behind to win 3-2 at Vale Park.

The Brewers trailed to Ellis Harrison’s goal after little more than a minute but two goals from Dale Taylor, either side of Jonny Smith’s penalty, saw them take home three important points in their bid to move away from the relegation battle.

Admitting he is rarely made welcome by the home crowd, Maamria – who has never lost as a manager at Vale Park – said: “We were down to the bare bones, really, but the lads were terrific.

“It’s a derby game and I thought we turned up.

“And you see the state of the pitch, it’s actually worse than our pitch, and you know in those games, if you’re going to win, you’ve got to compete, you’ve got to scrap and you’ve got to show fighting spirit. And above all you’ve got to show resilience as well.

“You’ve got to defend as a team and you’ve got to come in with the intent to win the game. We picked an attacking team and I thought our game plan worked brilliantly.

“The team stayed focused, stayed resilient and we made sure in the last couple of days to tell them that, if we do concede, we don’t concede another straight away.

“It was really poor from the kick-off, we didn’t deal with it, we were quite nervous and that’s probably some of our younger players, not really finding their feet.

“We stayed in the game and did the basics well and we could have scored more than the three goals.

“They don’t like me at Port Vale, I get a lot of stick from the stands so I make sure that whenever I come here, I win.”

Meanwhile, Vale boss Darrell Clarke was desperately disappointed by his team’s showing, particularly given the upturn in their performances in recent weeks.

Substitute Jamie Proctor made it 3-2 with 10 minutes to play but the manager conceded it was a day to forget for the hosts.

He said: “We were sloppy at times, we got a bit naive at times, and we’ve not produced the quality that we have.

“It was frustrating, especially with how we started the game. We started brightly, scored a goal, but I never felt we got our link-up play right.

“We didn’t pick up enough battles with enough second balls which is unlike us, to be fair, so we’ll take our medicine on that.

“It was frustrating to concede so shortly after we’d taken the lead and to concede straight after half-time as well.

“We have to then climb that mountain and we huffed and puffed and didn’t get ourselves going so we have to take that on the chin.

“They were time-wasting and the referee doesn’t book their goalie when he’s been at it all through the game.

“You know, I feel sorry for punters when they come to watch games like that and that it’s slowed down so dramatically and then it’s not added on the injury time, which I don’t understand.

“But we’ve only ourselves to blame. That’s me nitpicking. We have to play a lot better than we did to win a game at League One level.”