FILLING in at the position he played countless times during his first spell at Salisbury City in Conference South, tenacious James Clarke returned to rightback on Friday night and produced a star performance.

It was arguably his best display since signing for the Ray Mac club, keeping hot winger Jennison Myrie-Williams at bay on Vale’s wide pitch throughout the 90 minutes, writes Joel Holt.

And the versatile tough-nut, usually partnering skipper Glenn Wilson in centre-half, saluted his side for their mammoth effort and insisted they were better on the night.

“We went to Vale and gave them a cracking game in their own back yard,” he said.

“I’d personally say that in some stages we were better than them.

Many people will say the positive thing from the defeat is that we can concentrate on the league. But there are many positives to take from Friday night.”

“It was a bold move from Mikey to slot me in at right back but he had faith in me to do a good job and I managed to keep dangerman Jennison quiet and, fortunately, he didn’t have his best game.

“I was happy we tried a few things and thought we gave a good account of ourselves.”

“Vale are a good strong League One side but if you watch the game again you will see it’s not a 4-1 outcome.

“The defeat is a hard one to take as we can see that as individuals and a team we’re not far off from the League One standard.

“Their fans even clapped us off. We did very well.”

Salisbury have lost their last three on the trot, with two coming at their fortress, but Clarke reckons the team will have no trouble returning to winning ways.

He added: “Mikey outlined at the start of the season he wanted hungry lads and he’s signed a few and look what it’s doing for us!”

“We’re doing very well in the league. If we’re solid then we’ll score goals and that’s the platform we’ve set. We won’t find it hard to bounce back and we’re all a bunch of hungry lads and Mikey wants everyone rattling away.

“I’m sure we will be fine at Macclesfield Town.”