Neil Aspin will try and keep Ricky Miller grounded after debut strike

Port Vale boss Neil Aspin said it will be “difficult to keep Ricky Miller’s feet on the ground” after the striker scored the opening goal in his team’s 3-0 win over Cambridge.

Miller, who joined the Valiants in the summer, hit a superb curling free-kick just before half-time and won his new side a penalty as he impressed on his debut.

Aspin said: “It’s very difficult to keep his feet on the ground but he has got the potential to be a real favourite at the club.

“He can score goals and I believe he will score goals, but he needs that fire in his belly as well, so we just have to manage him as best we can.”

Vale striker Tom Pope got the other two goals and Aspin hopes his side can keep supplying the chances for the marksman throughout the season.

Aspin added: “I was very pleased that we created more chances.

“I think last season we had quite a few games where we didn’t create many chances, that’s why Tom Pope did remarkably well to get 19 goals, because he didn’t have a lot of chances to go at.

“We need to create more chances for him and we have done today.

Aspin was also happy at how solid his side looked on the opening day: “It’s very important to keep a clean sheet as we haven’t had one in any of our pre-season games, so to get one today I’d rather that happen.

“I thought Connell Rawlinson on his debut was excellent. He’s made the step up from the Welsh League and he’s taken it in his stride.”

Cambridge manager Joe Dunne was unhappy with his side’s performance and admitted they deserved nothing out of the game.

“I’ve no complaints about the score,” Dunne said. “They deserved to win. We never produced today.

“We’ve got to regroup, we absolutely can’t have any more (performances) like that, it’s an unacceptable way of playing from us.

“We worked so hard as staff to get this club back to where we felt we had a good way of playing and an identity and that’s been wiped out straightaway on day one.”

The Cambridge boss felt his side’s lack of fight was a cause for concern.

“It’s a tough one to take,” said Dunne. “We’ve got a lot of young ones who will have to learn quickly.

“We’ve got to man up a bit when the physicality comes, and we’ve got to fight. They have that in them but today it wasn’t there, so I’ve got to unlock it.

“We 100 percent can’t have too many more games like that.”