Ryan Loft earns Scunthorpe manager Neil Cox praise after brace against Port Vale

Posted Wednesday, January 27, 2021 by PA

Scunthorpe manager Neil Cox hailed the quality and work ethic of Ryan Loft after the striker’s brilliant brace earned his side a 2-0 League Two victory over Port Vale.

The 23-year-old fired the Iron in front in the 26th minute with a superb solo goal, before then firing in his second from point-blank range six minutes later.

“The first goal was a great finish, but we’ve worked with Lofty on that,” Cox said.

“Having watched Vale play, we knew we might have to try and turn them high up the pitch, which is exactly what happened.

“Sometimes Lofty does really well in games and sometimes he lets himself down, but he’s a young lad learning the game and coming into League Two football for the first time.

“He was blowing a bit at the end, but he really put a shift in and when you get that sort of performance from him, he’s a handful.

“We won the game with that first-half performance – in the second half we sat deep and changed to five at the back.

“It’s easy to play when you’re 2-0 down because you’ve got nothing to lose. We just had to sit and do our jobs, which we did.

“Port Vale had loads of the ball, but they didn’t hurt us or really cause us any problems.”

Loft showed all his quality to break the deadlock midway through the first half, rolling his marker on halfway before racing clear and drilling a shot into the far corner from a tight angle.

He looked like turning provider for the Iron’s second goal in the 32nd minute, but when Alex Gilliead’s strike – following Loft’s defence-splitting pass – was saved, the striker continued his run into the box to mop up the rebound.

After a dressing room dressing down at the break, Vale were much better in the second half, but they were unable to turn long spells of possession and some dangerous crosses into clear-cut chances.

“It was disappointing – and not good enough, especially in the first half,” said Port Vale coach Frank Sinclair, in charge for the second-successive game with interim boss Danny Pugh isolating.

“We came second in races and in winning tackles, second balls and headers.

“That’s really disappointing, because we couldn’t have made it any clearer to the players how important we thought this game was.

“Now we’ve got to really roll our sleeves up, because we’re in a dogfight. The sooner the players realise that, the better.

“It took for us to get angry at half-time and get under a few people’s skins for us to get a performance that warranted not losing the second half.

“The three players we brought on at half-time affected the game and enabled us to compete, but unless you get a really early goal, it’s always going to be difficult to get back into the game.”