Cheltenham victory gives Flitcroft food for thought at Port Vale

Last weekend's 4-2 win over Cheltenham Town has given David Flitcroft plenty of decisions to make as he prepares his side for the trip to Port Vale on Saturday.
Alex MacDonald scores against Cheltenham.Alex MacDonald scores against Cheltenham.
Alex MacDonald scores against Cheltenham.

Stags put in a fine display to overcome the Robins and maintain their promotion push.

And Flitcroft was pleased with how his side adapted to the changes he made during the game.

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He said: “It gave me food for thought on this weekend. As a manager you’re making decisions all the time – do we change the system, personnel and so on. You’re adding them up all the time and making sure you get the right balance.

“Not many teams go and dominate 95 minutes of football – you might dominate one half of the game then an astute change by the opposition could give them an advantage, so you have to have to have periods in games where the players know what they have to go to if there is a change in system, but they know where they have to go and what to do if we choose to do that.

“We did that against Cheltenham and it worked really well and we scored four goals."

Flitcroft says that maintaining self belief and instilling confidence in his players remains a key factor.

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He added: “We have to focus on us. We had a good reserve game in the week where we got some good minutes into players and we’ve had two really good training sessions that were upbeat and with a good tempo, which always helps when you’re coming off a great win like against Cheltenham. We have to let the players know what a good result that was as Bury, who are flying at the moment, only got a point against them.

“To score four goals against them reiterated that we are a good team as we reproduced the football that got us to the top of the table.”