We spoke to John Ward after the game yesterday:

It's a terrific win and probably one of the most important of the season, because it puts us in second place at the half way point. We couldn't ask for any more than that. It was a big win, because of the situation we knew we could put ourselves in.

When you are 2-0 down it needs a lot of strength to come through and get the result that everyone expected. We didn't expect it as a team, because we knew we would have to work hard at it.

I've no grumbles Vale's goals, things went for them and they took advantage. Things didn't go for us, so it became about what we did next.

I don't think we deserved to be two down, but you can't do anything about that. What you can do is step things up in the next 45 minutes. We put that question to the team - do you feel sorry for yourselves or do you go and do the job - and I've got a group of people here who are up for a challenge. They face it head on and sometimes it works, as it has done today and against Hartlepool ... and sometimes it doesn't, as against Tranmere. However, we've been in that position too many times for my liking. We've done that in the last four games, and twice we've come back and twice we haven't. We've got to start making sure that we're better in the first period from now on.

Luke Joyce came in because of an injury to Paul Thirlwell. He's a lively young fella, he's got no fear, and he wants to be on that pitch. He's a bit like young Hackney, they don't have any fear or worry and they just go out and play their football. I've seen Luke play like that since I've been here, he trains like that, and he's a young player who really enjoys the game.

I started with Simon out on the right, because he did it against Hartlepool and he was able to cut in and whip crosses in, things like that. He was happy to have a go at that again but, obviously, he prefers it on the left. We made the decision to move him across at half time, and Jeff Smith handled things on the right hand side very well. We also got the bonus of a couple of goals out of Simon, so it worked out nicely. We've struggled on that position on the right since Joe Anyinsah went back to Preston, and we obviously haven't got anyone in yet to do that job. It is a priority for me to try and fill that place but, until we do, then we have to use the players that we have in the squad.

We have the players here who want to be successful. Today we've dug it out because we wanted it. You have to come through some tough times now and again. The first 45 minutes were tough, it wasn't quite deserved but we had to do something about it. I'm really pleased that they did it the way that they did."