Tom Cleverley hails Plymouth ‘mentality’ after victory over Port Vale

Plymouth manager Tom Cleverley felt his team had a “different look in their eyes” as they moved off the bottom of League One with a 1-0 win at fellow strugglers Port Vale.

Lorent Tolaj settled a low-quality contest moments after half-time, scoring his seventh league goal since signing for Argyle from Vale in August.

Victory ended the Pilgrims’ six-match losing run in all competitions and moved them above their opponents in the table to 22nd place.

And Cleverley said his belief in his players was high ahead of the crucial clash.

“We’ve done a lot of work on our defensive stuff, but it was more the mentality of the players that saw us through today,” he said.

“There was a different look in their eyes today. We had a little bit more of an age profile about us and when (some players) are on the bench but getting the guys at it before (the match), you’ve got a sort of warm feeling as a coach that there’s a lot of trust in the players and they delivered and deserve credit.

“I felt like there was a little bit more belief (after half-time), especially in their half.

“They press you well when you’re trying to build up, so we didn’t take too much risk with that.

“But I felt like we could open up and take a little bit more risk in their half and show a bit more confidence, which they did straight after half-time.

“It was a contest where both teams were not tentative, but you could tell we were desperate for a clean sheet and that was our focus.”

Vale now find themselves bottom of the standings, having gone seven league games without a win and failed to find the net in six of those.

Pressure is mounting on boss Darren Moore, who insisted he “totally understands” the criticism he received from sections of the home crowd at the end of the match.

“Looking at the way the game ebbed and flowed, there were two teams scrapping at the bottom, but we definitely had the upper hand with chances in the first half,” he said.

“We walked off the pitch and now we’re looking at the game and their only real chance early in the second half ends up in the back of the net.

“Are we competing at the (right) level in the game? Yes, we are. Did we create enough chances today to win the game? Yes, we did. And that’s just me being plain, simple and honest with it.

“And that’s what we spoke about as a group of players. In order for us to change the environment, it has to come from within the dressing room.

“We can’t seek it from anywhere else, we have to get it amongst ourselves and that’s what we’ve spoken about in there.

“In the storm that we’re in at the moment, we have to keep riding through it and working hard through it because nobody will give us anything.”