Around 25 minutes before Aaron Collins’ winning strike against Port Vale, the Welsh forward was called over to the touchline by Joey Barton during a break in play. A Vale player was being spoken to by referee Carl Brook over a rather industrial challenge on Lewis Gordon and Barton seized on the opportunity for a quick tactical assessment.
The pair were deep in conversation interspersed with various exaggerated arm movements, displaying which type of runs Collins was making versus the type of runs his manager wanted him to make.
The crux of the exchange lay in the fact that Barton felt he was running too much on the same line as Gordon, therefore offering a similar angle to the left wing-back as his teammates were looking for forward passing options. He thought Collins needed to cut into a central position more often, and profit more from Josh Coburn’s knockdowns as he battled manfully against Vale’s centre-backs.
