Jon Brady rues scheduling as Port Vale bid for unlikely great escape

Port Vale boss Jon Brady has admitted his side’s chances of a great escape have been made harder by scheduling woes after their 1-0 victory over relegation rivals Rotherham.

Ryan Croasdale returned from injury to fire the hosts to three points at Vale Park.

Brady’s side have the weekend off due to Stockport’s EFL Trophy final against Luton, but with games in hand already due to their FA Cup progress and weather abandonments, Vale will play their last seven games in 19 days.

And Brady, whose side are 14 points off safety with seven games left, said: “We go into seven games in 19 days, I don’t know if that’s ever happened before in the EFL.

“It’s going to be very tough to navigate that.

“You saw tonight that the players have bounced back from playing the World Club champions. It takes a lot out of you to play them both emotionally and physically.

“For the boys to bounce back I’m really proud of them. They’re still fighting and they’ve shown that.

“This group certainly needs some rest and recovery. The schedule is what it is, we’ve got to grit it out and get on with it.”

And on the game, he said: “It’s a positive result.

“Seeing the game out and keeping a clean sheet is the most pleasing thing for me.

“All in all, it was probably more of a team performance than anything else.

“It got a bit scrappy. They had one or two chances and we’ve come out the right side of a scrappy game in the end.”

Rotherham are 11 points off safety themselves and have six games left to avoid the dreaded drop to League Two.

Asked whether this defeat meant the Millers were finished in the survival race, boss Lee Clark, who is still searching for his first win since taking charge, said: “Absolutely not. We still have 18 points to play for.

“What is certain is we can’t waste a half of football like we did in the first half. It was a really poor goal and we didn’t ask enough questions of them.

“We did that better in the second. We had some good chances but it wasn’t to be.

“We’re not in a position where we can waste one minute, let alone a half.

“The goal we conceded was a plethora of errors by us. We had the ball, made the wrong decision and it ends up in the goal.

“Our goalkeeper hasn’t had to do a lot. He’s made a good save to tip a shot over the bar.

“We have to cause chaos in their area. We had good chances. At both ends we’ve had issues…we have conceded so many and not scored enough.”