Vale boss Andy Crosby praises excellent response in cup win after league woes

Port Vale boss Andy Crosby hailed his side’s character after they twice came from behind to beat Fleetwood 3-2 and progress to the second round of the Carabao Cup.

Vale had been thrashed 7-0 by Barnsley in their opening Sky Bet League One match of the new season on Saturday – and soon found themselves trailing to an early goal from Cian Hayes.

Ethan Chislett equalised with his first goal since joining on a free transfer from AFC Wimbledon, but Ryan Graydon put the visitors back in front at the start of the second half.

Josh Thomas, on loan from Swansea, levelled things up again at 2-2 before Chislett’s second of the night settled matters with 18 minutes left.

“It was an excellent response to the weekend,” Crosby said.

“I said to the players that football is an easier game to play when you are full of confidence and belief – and that obviously takes a big hit with the manner of defeat on Saturday.

“Then you go 1-0 down in your first home game and that makes it challenging, but we responded well. We scored three excellent goals.”

Crosby added: “There is a lot of work to do, but we are pleased with the reaction after a challenging period for us.”

Fleetwood boss Scott Brown was less than impressed by the way his side twice failed to hold on to their lead.

“I thought we were exceptional for the first 10 or 15 minutes, but we completely switched off after that and we became sloppy,” he said.

“(Our) wing-backs didn’t get high enough up the park and the strikers didn’t link up play well enough before half-time.

“We were in total control of the game in the second half and then we made sloppy mistakes and we gave away the goals.”

Brown added: “It is never nice coming away from home knowing you have to score four goals, so we need to stop those mistakes.”