Danny Cowley delighted as much-changed Lincoln thrash Port Vale

Posted Wednesday, August 15, 2018 by PA

Lincoln boss Danny Cowley was delighted with his side’s endeavour after they secured their passage into the second round of the Carabao Cup with a thumping 4-0 win at Port Vale.

The Imps, who have started the League Two season with back-to-back victories, were rampant in their demolition of the Valiants.

New-signing Jason Shackell headed the Imps into a fifth-minute lead before goals in the second-half from Matt Green and substitutes Michael O’Connor and John Akinde.

Cowley: “Tonight is pleasing, to come to a really difficult place like Port Vale and to win and keep a clean sheet is really pleasing, particularly with the number of changes we made, so it bodes well for the future.

“We obviously work hard on set-pieces, so we work on trying to get our defenders free, and we knew it was a good move, so it was nice to have three at the back post and see it pay off.

“I thought we had good control, I felt we respected Port Vale and I was pleased when it went to 2-0 just after half-time.

“I thought they had a period of the game against us and when a team has a spell against you, you just have to see it out, and we managed to see that out.

“It’s great that the boys that didn’t play on Saturday played tonight. We need to have them fighting for their place.

“They came in and looked good, they did their jobs and it shows the strength in our squad.”

Port Vale first-team coach Gary Brabin admitted that the hosts let their supporters down.

Brabin said: “We know that the last two performances haven’t been what we expected, and what our fans expect, we still think there’s some good in there, but there’s a real soft underbelly there which needs to be ironed out quickly.

“There’s certain things we said to individuals and collectively as a team, I think you can tell by the look on everyone’s face that we’re disappointed and expected a better performance.

“We need to show what we’re capable of after the first game.

“We’ll have to bounce back in a better shape on Saturday.”