James Norwood praised Tranmere Rovers’ collective team performance as his two goals earned a 2-1 win away at Port Vale on Tuesday night.
The forward, League Two’s top scorer, was on target in either half at Vale Park as Micky Mellon’s side moved up to ninth in the fourth-tier, three points from the Play-Offs.
Norwood put TRFC front after 10 minutes, seizing on Vale goalkeeper Scott Brown only parrying Kieron Morris’ drive to shoot left-footed in to the top right-corner from close-range.
He then scored his 22nd league goal of the season on 56 minutes, latching on to Connor Jennings’ pass to arrow his strike across the face of goal which beat Brown to find the far corner.
Although Ben Whitfield pulled one back on the hour with a low effort past Scott Davies for John Askey’s hosts, Tranmere held on to secure a big win, and Norwood praised the cohesive team display in Staffordshire.
He said: “We’ll take the seven points out of nine. We are in a much stronger position than we were a week ago, the way we are playing, we’re secure at the back and we are scoring goals and we’ve got to kick on now.
“We have figured ourselves out and threw caution to the wind in the way we play now and we’re keeping tight at the back, we know exactly what we’re doing.
“It’s difficult to break teams down but if we get ahead then I’m more than confident that we can stay in it.
“I said to myself I’d be disappointed if I didn’t get to 20 (goals) whichever league I was in, but I couldn’t do that without the other ten lads. Connor (Jennings) has probably got me eight assists, Ollie Banks, Jay Harris, Harvey (Gilmour). Not one of them has been a penalty or a free-kick so I’ve had 24 assists.
“We play a way that suits me. I’ve got players around me with a lot of quality, all I have to do is put it in back of the net.”
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