Bristol Rovers manager Joey Barton tipped striker Jevani Brown to “go from strength to strength” after his first goal for the club sealed a comfortable 3-0 League One victory over 10-man Port Vale at the Memorial Stadium.
Barton praised Brown after his 20-yard goal late on completed a good night’s work for the summer signing from Exeter, who put the Gas on course for victory when he crossed for Luke McCormick to head the hosts into a 25-minute lead.
Vale defender Jesse Debrah was sent off after 38 minutes for a second bookable offence before right-back Jack Hunt popped up in first-half stoppage-time to double the lead and then Brown capped a fine personal show in style, four minutes from time.
Barton said: “Jevani’s a quality operator and that goal was important because it will lift a weight off his shoulders and I’m sure that he’ll now go from strength to strength for us.
“It was his best performance in the blue and white quarters and a lovely top-binner like that right in front of our most vociferous fans will certainly settle him and endear him to the supporters.
“It was a hell of a ball in for the first goal and everyone in the stadium now knows what a top-notch operator JB is.”
Barton says he is confident Brown will turn Rovers into a formidable attacking force.
He added: “JB’s had to be patient because it takes bit of time to get up to speed but tonight we looked unplayable up front with JB, Aaron Collins and Chris Martin and their pace and link-up play.
“I always knew his goal would come and I’m buzzing for him. We’re lucky to have him at our club. We have had to be streetwise to beat the rat race for him.
“But I know he’ll bear fruit over the next few months amid all the challenges we face this season.”
Vale boss Andy Crosby tipped former Halifax defender Debrah to learn from his sending off.
Crosby said: “Jesse is going to be fantastic for our club. He’s got fantastic attributes and we’ll be there to support him. He’ll learn from this and we’ll back him.”
“The referee has made a decision but I’m not sure (over) the first one, which looked like just a coming-together from the bench.
“As soon as you go down to 10 men, it’s going to be extremely difficult but the referee had a decision to make, the rules have changed in terms of how tackles are interpreted. It was a cheap one.”
Crosby praised his side for their show of resilience in the second half.
Crosby added: “We beat their press numerous times and got into their final third many times but if you don’t track your men into your own box and concede poor goals, you give yourself a big mountain to climb.
“We freshened things up at half-time with four changes to stay in the game and I’m so proud of the players’ reaction because they kept fighting and didn’t go under. We hung in there and defeat is difficult to take.”
'I will keep fighting' - Ten Hag adamant he is the right manager for Man Utd
Erik ten Hag insists that he is the right man for the job at Manchester United despite their 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Crystal Palace on Monday.
Michael Olise netted twice against a sorry United team at Selhurst Park, with Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also getting on the scoresheet.
It is the first time that Palace have done the double over the Red Devils in the Premier League, as United extended their winless run on the road to five games.
There has been a lot of speculation over Ten Hag’s future following a disappointing second campaign in charge, with just one year left on his contract.
Asked if he was the right manager for United, he told Sky Sports: "Absolutely. If the right players are there and available, we have a good squad, but are missing the whole backline – we had problems.
"I will keep fighting. I prepared the team in the best way I could do. It was not good enough, by far – I have to take responsibility for that. But I will find energy and prepare them for Sunday’s game.
"At the end of the day, I have to do it with the players who are available. All season, we have huge [injury] problems. Many times we have sorted it out. Today we didn’t."
United have struggled with injury problems all season, with Harry Maguire and club captain Bruno Fernandes joining the lengthy list of players missing against Palace.
Ten Hag highlighted the lack of defensive options at his disposal but did not make excuses for the poor performance, adding: "It’s clear and obvious – this is underperforming. It’s not good enough. We are very disappointed in this. Our fans were behind us all the way – we should have kept fighting like the fans did.
"There are always reasons. Everyone sees our backline, we have huge problems, but at the end of the day we have to deal with it – we should have done better than we did.
"We know [how damaging it could be], but we have nine points to play, so we have to fight for the nine points."
Man Utd thrashing a 'big statement' but Palace are not surprised, says Eze
Eberechi Eze says Crystal Palace's 4-0 thrashing of Manchester United is a "big statement" but insists there should be little surprise that it happened.
Micheal Olise scored twice as Palace ran riot against the sorry Red Devils at Selhurst Park on Monday.
Jean-Philippe Mateta and Tyrick Mitchell also got in on the act as Palace sealed their first league double over United.
Palace have now won four of their last five Premier League games, with Oliver Glasner having turned the tide in the past few weeks.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Eze said: "It says a lot, it's a big statement, but we're not surprised.
"We know what we're capable of, we know what we can do. The quality we've got in the dressing room is high – we don't see it as a surprise. We know what we came here to do today, it worked.
"You can see we’re creating chances, we're not worried about what's going on behind us. We're attacking, pressing, we're aggressive – we're going to continue to create chances for sure."
Also speaking to Sky Sports, Glasner said: "Congratulations to the team. I think in the first half, we didn't play as well as we could, but we were very efficient and scored very nice goals.
"At half-time, we made some adaptations, and the second half was much better. We created a lot of chances, scored some nice goals, and it's a great win.
"We know we have quality when we get our players in situations to score a goal.
"Good players, a good team spirit, but we must always stay humble. It's not so long ago we were struggling [in a relegation battle]. We are doing well, but we have a lot to improve."
This was Palace's biggest Premier League win since beating Leeds United 5-1 in April 2023, while it also marked their biggest on home soil in the competition since a 5-0 victory over Leicester City in April 2018.
Udinese 1-1 Napoli: Struggling Bianconeri grab last-gasp home draw
Napoli were held to a 1-1 draw at relegation-battling Udinese in Serie A on Monday after a stoppage-time goal by forward Isaac Success cancelled out a Victor Osimhen header.
Osimhen nodded home to give Napoli the lead in the 51st minute after Matteo Politano sent a lofted cross from the right into the middle of the box, and the Nigerian striker headed the ball in off the left post.
The Nigerian thought he doubled their advantage in the 80th minute, but his effort was ruled out for offside, before Success bundled in the leveller in stoppage time, netting from a Thomas Kristensen header.
Napoli moved up to eighth on 51 points from 35 games and are nine points behind both fifth-placed Atalanta and Roma, in sixth.
Data Debrief:
Osimhen is the third Napoli player to score in six matches in a row against a single team in Serie A in the three-points-for-a-win era, after Gonzalo Higuain against Lazio between 2013 and 2016 and Dries Mertens against Bologna between 2016 and 2019.
Despite fighting back to earn a point, Udinese have now failed to win three games under a new manager for the first time since August-September 2010 under Francesco Guidolin.
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