'THIS HAS TO BE THE START'

Forward Paton insists impressive victory at Exeter has to be a springboard for Valiants' campaign

- Dan Newbould

GOALSCORER Ruari Paton hopes the win at Exeter can kickstart a good run for his Port Vale.

Paton was one of the heroes as his early goal contributed to a first three-point haul in League One with Saturday's 2-0 win.

And he told the club afterwards: "The gaffer was saying it can be a springboard for us. A bit of momentum.

"You can look back at what we've done well and kind of make that your benchmark of what we need to do in other games to make sure we get results.

"The people coming, that's what they deserve. We want to do well. Hopefully a kickstart of a good run.

"I think it's hard to keep positivity going when you're close to results. Last week was an absolute sickener. I think everyone is just glad to get a good hard win away and get us on the board, get us going.

"That's probably the most important thing now is this is hopefully the start of a bit of momentum for us. Relief as much as joy, I would say.

"It's not like we've been getting beaten 5-0 every week. It's tiny little differences. That togetherness in the squad is brilliant.

"The environment is enjoyable. It's a good group and we deserve some good results. We deserve this."