It isn't pretty, but Vale manage to pick up the points from seaside

PORT Vale managed to get the job done on a tricky-looking trip to the coast. CLIVE YOULTON continues his review of the Valiants’ season...

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DARREN Moore faced a selection headache as he took his Port Vale team to Morecambe on November 16.

With Kyle John and Mitch Clark back in training, and Sam Hart and Nathan Smith feeling they deserved a place given how well they performed against Wrexham, Moore had options.

Smith hadn’t played a single league game and Moore told the media at the time: “Nathan’s role is he is a valuable member of the club and the team. Nathan will play a huge part this season. We were really pleased we've got a centre-back in Nathan’s quality and experience but we knew that.

“Nathan has had to be patient to step back in the team. He has been training incredibly well, with detail and focus. We felt it was the right game to put him in [ie, not a league game] and as you can see from his performance, what an excellent performance it was. Of stature, maturity, focus, detail, solidness, he ticked all the boxes of things you want from a central defender.”

Moore insisted Morecambe would pose a different threat and he added: “We've got to be ready for them.”

Morecambe were bottom of the table having lost nine league matches already but Moore treated every opponent the same.

“There's been a mentality about every game, irrespective of the team we are playing against,” he said.