United’s Irish striker Paddy Madden was understandably delighted to see his goal edge his side past a resilient Port Vale outfit, and secure a fifth straight victory for Graham Alexander’s men.
Stephen Dawson’s wonderful second half solo run and cross set Madden up for the header that separated the sides - a run that has been likened to Zinedine Zidane in his hey day.“It was another great performance from the lads,” he told The Iron PlayerHD.
“Not the prettiest of performances. Port Vale are a hard team to break down, but we stuck at it and got our rewards. They have a lot of physical players but the lads coped with it well and I don’t think they really looked like scoring.”
You could see how thrilled the Iron’s top scorer was to see the man he grew up with set him up, and he joked about Dawson not making a run like that since they were young.
“It’s an unbelievable run by Stevie Dawson. It shows that he still has that in his locker, because I haven’t seen him run like that since he was about ten years old," he said.
“He’s outpaced his man, and as I’ve said me and Ste know each other inside-out, so he knows my movements and that I like to pull back towards the back stick and he stood it up perfectly.”
Madden praised Dawson’s man of the match performance, and mentioned the fans were starting to see his influence on the team.
“For me, and not just because I am so close to him, he’s one of the best midfielders I’ve ever played with. The fans are seeing what he’s all about and he’s that kind of Roy Keane winner you need in a team," he stated.
An amazing run of five consecutive wins have lifted the club into the play-off picture out of nowhere and, if we can better Barnsley and Gillingham’s result on Sunday, we would achieve that goal.
“That’s the beauty of football. After Bradford we’re ten points off and you’re thinking it’s probably not going to be our year. But it just shows the characters we have in the dressing room with a never say die attitude," he said.
“It’s all very exciting. The fans turned up in their numbers today and we appreciated their great support.
“I believe their support got us over that line, and we will go into the Sheffield United game full of confidence."
See much more from Paddy Madden, Graham Alexander and Jamie Ness on The Iron PlayerHD.
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