League Two

Exeter City 1 (Prosser og 29)

Port Vale 0

by Steve Shaw

DEAN Glover's Port Vale side let 10-man Exeter City off the hook last night as their lack of a cutting edge and negative tactics were cruelly exposed.

Vale had held their own during the early exchanges, despite surrendering the majority of possession to their hosts.

However, they seemed to have been handed a decisive advantage when Exeter defender Danny Seaborne was sent off for a second bookable offence in the 21st minute.

However, it was the Grecians who seized the initiative by switching from a 3-5-2 formation to 4-3-2 – and they were repaid after 29 minutes when Luke Prosser's clumsy own goal gave them the lead.

Striker Adam Stansfield swung over a delivery from the left, which Marcus Stewart, hunting for his 250th career goal, glanced across goal.

Caught in football's 'corridor of uncertainly' 20-year-old Prosser conspired to side-foot the ball into his own net from close range.

Vale, meanwhile, struggled to gain any momentum after persisting with the defensive 4-5-1 formation, featuring two holding midfielders in Dave Brammer and Anthony Griffith, with which they started the match.

Glover refused to tweak his formation until half-time, when he thrust his striker son Danny into the fray at the expense of the ineffective Dave Howland.

Once Louis Dodds was relieved of his lone striker role, in the absence of leading scorer Marc Richards, Vale began to show more purposed, but they still lacked the required guile to dominate.

That said, Glover Jnr could have made Exeter pay on 73 minutes when a through-ball sent him clear.

But a poor first touch opened the door for loan defender Troy Archibald-Henville to toe-end the ball back to keeper Paul Jones, who was caught by Glover. The challenge earned the youngster a caution.

Three minutes earlier, Brammer completely missed his shot from the edge of the box, proving to be a masterful dummy, as Paul Edwards steamed in to power a 30-yard drive against the outside of the right-hand post.

The Valiants never looked convincing against a side who were competing in the Blue Square Premier last season, while Vale enjoyed League One status.

How times have changed with fifth-placed Exeter leading Vale in League Two by 13 places and 24 points.

A disappointed Glover said afterwards: "Coming towards half-time I thought, with our extra body, we could have gone on and capitalised on it, but we didn't.

"At half-time we had to change it and put two up front. But in doing that, we still never capitalised and our passing throughout the game has let us down.

"It's not about systems. We've got an extra body, but if we can't pass the ball well enough and use the extra body, then we have got a problem. We've known all along we've got a problem in not having enough creativity."

With keeper Joe Anyon beginning his recovery from the broken leg he picked up in Saturday's 2-1 defeat at Chesterfield, Chris Martin made a seventh senior start.

The 18-year-old didn't disappoint either with a mature display. The highlight was his superb tip-over to deny Stansfield's long-range effort at the death.

Martin's elevation to the starting line-up meant there was a place on the bench for youth-team goalkeeper Daniel Lloyd-Weston

Richards failed to recover from an Achilles problem, but Brammer returned to first-team duty after being laid off for two months with a knee injury.

The 34-year-old worked tirelessly in trying to spark his team-mates into life with his distinctive brand of possession football before he was replaced on 75 minutes.

Another positive was the performance of Griffith, who deployed controlled aggression and good positional display in protecting the back four.

Seaborne received his first caution in the opening minutes for a foul on Valiants midfielder Scott Brown.

Griffith showed his teeth on four minutes by sliding in to prevent Stewart enjoying a shot on goal from 16 yards.

Prosser then put his body on the line on two occasions to deny Stansfield a clear sight of goal, before Griffith made another outstanding challenge to stop Stuart Fleetwood from pulling the trigger.

Stansfield hooked an angled strike over before Seaborne saw red on 21 minutes after Dean Moxey was penalised for an illegal tackle on Dodds.

In an act of frustration, Seaborne kicked the loose ball to one side, prompting referee Simon Hooper to hand the centre-half a second yellow card.

The visitors briefly took heart from Seaborne's dismissal as loan midfielder Paul Marshall fired just wide of the left-hand post, before Prosser found the wrong net.

Just after the half-hour Martin got down well to keep out Stansfield's strike, and approaching the break the striker dragged another shot wide.

Former Sunderland forward Stewart collected a cute ball over the top from Rob Edwards in the 48th minute, but Martin was equal to his pile driver from the left channel.

Fleetwood, a one time Crewe target, found space in the opposite channel in the 54th minute, only to be stopped in his tracks by John McCombe's last-gasp intervention.

However, McCombe should have done better at the opposite end three minutes later when he met Brammer's corner, but headed beyond the right-hand post from eight yards.

The centre-half received a blow to his face for his troubles and later required stitches to a gash above his eye.

With Exeter flagging, Vale failed to capitalise as Glover and Edwards went close.

Grecians boss Paul Tisdale certainly wasn't climbing the walls with anxiety and refrained from making his first substitute until the 83rd minute.

By that time Glover had made three in also introducing Simon Richman and James Lawrie to proceedings.

Lawrie was supposed to be playing in Northern Ireland under-21's 1-1 draw with Ukraine last night, but was withdrawn by Glover, who was keen to boost his attacking options.

Playing just behind Glover and Dodds, the young striker did his first-team prospects no harm with a vibrant display.

Vale's final chance arrived late on when Glover flicked on to send Dodds on his way near the edge of the box.

Jones ill-advisedly rushed off his line, placing himself in no man's land, but Dodds mirrored the keeper's indecisiveness with a weak effort which lacked confidence and composure.

Commenting on Prosser's own goal, Glover added: "Luke has unfortunately got on the end of a cross.

"I felt somebody could have given him a shout to him to let it go.

"But because we are a young side, and quiet, we don't pass that information on and we should have dealt with the cross better anyhow.

"We didn't get in behind them enough and when we did, we didn't get the rub of the green, but we also didn't capitalise on the chances we had.

"Danny has had a one-on-one and the lad's caught him and got a toe poke on it, then Louis had a chance at the death to lob the keeper, but he didn't get hold of it.

"Eddie (Paul Edwards) has also hit the post with a screamer."

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