htafc.com spoke to Town manager Andy Ritchie following the 3-1 victory over Port Vale at the Galpharm Stadium.
"Lets not get too carried away; we had a great start and raced into a 3-0 lead, but we looked a bit edgy for parts of the second-half. It's a little understandable as we've been going through a bad spell, but three points was the aim today and we've managed to get them. A scrappy 1-0 would have done for me today, but we played some good stuff intermingled with some poorer stuff. We tried to play with a higher tempo in the second-half but I thought both sides looked a little bit jaded.
"Even in the second-half, we had three great chances to kill the game off really. 'Cads' had one, although he was offside, but Danny had a great chance and if one of those goes in then it eases your nerves completely. I'm a little disappointed that we didn't score more, as it would have given us that extra boost of confidence.
"I was disappointed with the goal we conceded. I felt we got dragged around a little bit and somebody should have put a challenge in on the halfway line to stop them going any further. You have to be professional about it and sometimes you need to take a booking for the team. Having said that, I felt we should have had two penalties; the ref walked down the tunnel at the interval and I asked him about the push on Danny in the back to which he said, 'yeah, you're right.' I'm not being funny, but that can cost you a game! He also missed Westwood throwing a punch at Nathan Clarke, but overall I thought the referee got things right today.
"Boothy vindicated our decision to play him with just two minutes gone. He's had some niggling injuries; a hamstring problem at the start of the season and more recently a stiff back and we went with Luke and Cads because it looked such a good partnership in pre-season. However, it hasn't worked out and Boothy has been patient and today he took his chance - getting a goal and playing very well. He's knackered now though and we may have to play Luke against Hartlepool on Tuesday, but we'll see how he feels nearer the game; we'll go on what he says ahead of then.
"We have worked really hard this week; defensively on corners and free-kicks as well as in an attacking sense. It obviously paid dividends today and I thought we looked dangerous on all of our set-pieces. I'm very pleased with the effort of all the players throughout the week as well as today.
"Matt Glennon wasn't called on to make in the second-half, but at times we were a little bit too deep and allowing their strikers to receive the ball to feet inside our box is not what we want - we need to push out a little bit more.
"We've been looking for a striker this week but there's not very long until our next game now. Even if we do bring somebody in on Monday, it will be a little bit short notice to throw them in against Hartlepool from the start as we wouldn't have a lot of time to work with him. It's ongoing."
