Darren Moore hails Port Vale’s fighting spirit after win over Newport

Jan 18, 2025 2 min read
Darren Moore (Barrington Coombs/PA)
Darren Moore (Barrington Coombs/PA)

Port Vale manager Darren Moore praised the “fighting spirit” of his team after they twice came from behind to beat Newport 3-2 and move back into the automatic promotion places in League Two.

Home debutant Jaheim Headley scored the winner in the 77th minute after Newport had seen goals from Bobby Kamwa and Cameron Evans cancelled out by Ben Garrity and Jayden Stockley, respectively.

The win sees Vale rise to third spot in the table, having now made it back-to-back victories following an eight-match winless run.

And Moore was delighted with the desire shown by his side to secure a valuable three points.

“Credit to the players and everybody connected to the club today because we had to go and earn that result,” he said.

“If you’d said to me we were going to score three goals today, then we would have wanted three points and we have got that.

“So I’m pleased it came today at Vale Park that type of performance, that fighting performance, that fighting spirit in front of our Vale fans.

“The fans will have connected with the boys today in terms of the performance and that never-say-die attitude.

“We got in at half-time and even though we didn’t play as well as what we could, we still had the better chances.

“They’ve scored two goals from a set play and they had a lot of possession inside the pitch without really, really hurting us in our final third and in and around our box.”

Newport boss Nelson Jardim felt a shoulder injury to centre-back Ciaran Brennan towards the end of the first half, when the visitors were leading 2-1, had a big impact on the game.

Brennan was replaced by Kyle Jameson, who was later sent off for a second yellow card.

“It’s always disappointing when you lose, especially given the way we started the game,” Jardim said.

“We took the lead twice and I think we weren’t quite getting that grip in the game, as in controlling the game and playing our football.

“We lost Ciaran Brennan, who had an injury – his shoulder popped out.

“And then, since I had to change the back four, I guess we didn’t control the game as well as we normally do and we should.

“But yes, overall I’m obviously disappointed with the defeat, but there were some good positive things that these boys are showing.

“We have to just improve them, look forward and try and make sure that when we play away and score two goals, we do win the game.”

Newport drop to 20th place, six points above the drop zone, but Jardim insists his team aren’t in a relegation fight.

“No, we can only be focused on what we’re developing and doing,” he added.

“If you look around us, you see some of those teams have played more games than us.”

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