Port Vale: Brown not sweating over new contract
PORT Vale midfielder Scott Brown says he is relaxed about his prospects of securing a new contract with the club – despite being axed from Dean Glover's squad.
The industrious midfielder was overlooked for Saturday's 1-0 victory at League Two play-off hopefuls Bradford City after recovering from a neck injury.
Glover opted to keep faith with his central midfield partnership of Paul Marshall and Dave Howland, while he deployed Rob Taylor and Kevin Gall on the flanks.
However, the 23-year-old has no complaints about being dropped after admitting his form has suffered of late.
Brown said: "You want to play in every game, but with our results not going too well the gaffer has to make his changes.
"To be fair, the lads got a result, so I can't really argue.
"From a personal point of view you want to be playing all the time. If the team's not playing well, you still have to try to stand out, but it's hard."
Having previously been unleashed from central midfield he has recently found himself playing on the right flank.
While the midfielder is only concerned with winning his first-team place back, he confessed: "I hate playing on the right to be honest.
"If there's anywhere I don't want to play along the midfield it is on the right. I'd prefer to play on the left or predominantly in the middle.
"I think you get more involved in the game when you're in the middle.
"I thought that when I first came here and when I played in central midfield I did well.
"But to be fair, since Keith Downing (Vale's assistant boss) has come in we've been working on keeping our shape solid. That has benefited us and we've picked up a few good results in the last few weeks."
Brown, from Runcorn, initially joined the club on loan, but signed a permanent deal in January until the end of the season.
His move marked a new stage in his career having battled against injuries, including a double break to his leg, during his two-year stint at Cheltenham.
Brown is striving to earn a new contract in the summer, but said: "I'm fairly relaxed about it. There's no pressure on me to do something out of the ordinary. Obviously I know what I'm capable of.
"Of late I haven't been showing it, but I've been injured a lot over the last 18 months and it's going to take a lot of games for me to get back to where I was.
"Footballers have bad times when their form isn't the best, but you have to come through that and it makes you stronger as a player."
"When I first signed the gaffer sold the club to me in terms of wanting to play football and to be a footballing side which gets out of this league and pushes on.
"Come next year, if that's what we're building towards, I want to be part of it. But I need to get back playing and doing well."
Other Port Vale stories today
