Boss praises match winner Ajose as he didn't let penalty miss affect him

Steve Davis was quick to praise his on-loan striker Nicky Ajose after he slotted home the winning goal at Vale Park at the weekend. Ajose found enough space in between the Vale backline to collect a sublime pass from Jamie Ness and calmly slide it beyond Chris Neal for his sixth goal for the club. It would prove to be the decisive break through in a hard fought derby encounter but Davis praised Ajose as he didn’t let his earlier penalty miss affect him.

The on-loan forward from Leeds United had seen his spot kick pushed away by Neal after he himself had won the award himself after again latching onto a pass from the impressive Ness.

Steve told the club’s official web-site: “That is the quality Nicky has. A lot of players would have reflected on the penalty miss but he didn’t. He kept getting in there and looking for chances.

“That is the quality he has and he has popped up just a few minutes after his miss to score the winning goal. It was a great pass from Jamie (Ness). I think the Vale defenders through he was lining up to shoot but he has cleverly slipped Nicky in behind and he was poked it past the keeper.

“The opening goal was important because it gave us something to defend and was a great advantage to us. It was no more than we deserved for our first half performance because we couldhave been two or three goals up at half-time.”