Wanderers 2 PORT VALE 1 DRESS rehearsals have always been the same. The director knows he has a good cast and a good production on his hands but he's never entirely happy with the final run through. And so it was with Sam Allardyce on Saturday as Wanderers made astonishingly hard work of beating relegation-doomed Port Vale in their last work-out before their long-awaited FA Cup semi-final showdown with Aston Villa.

Three points was all that mattered and a third win in eight days was evidence of the quality and the determination of his players to keep alive their play-off hopes until the mathematics tell them otherwise.

But the manager knows the performance at Wembley will have to be much more polished with fewer stuttered lines and missed cues.

Allardyce saw Wanderers impose their authority and class on Brian Horton's no-hopers to such an extent that he was seriously considering sending on his understudies at half time when Eidur Gudjohnsen and Allan Johnston goals appeared to have the game in the bag. It was just as well he didn't as the squandered chances of the first half and a lapse in defence early in the second left him biting his nails. Problems then, but not enough to shake the self-assurance of a team that has kept its side of the bargain with five wins and three draws in the nine games since the manager asked his players to banish thoughts of Wembley after that thrilling victory over Charlton in the quarter-finals. The only blemish on their record came when the league leaders returned to the Reebok to exact revenge for their bitter cup disappointment.

That apart, they have produced promotion form - only to be frustrated by Huddersfield and Birmingham managing to maintain the six-point gap that is looking more daunting as each game passes.

Now they are equally determined to go the distance and achieve the distinction of playing in the first and last FA Cup finals on the world's most famous football stage.

"Confidence is the most important thing," Claus Jensen pointed out after shaking off the effects of his car crash the previous day to add two more 'assists' to his impressive collection. "That's got to be right on the spot and ours definitely is at the moment. "We are very confident and, even though we should have closed the game before we did on Saturday, we took the three points and that's what counts.

"We just have to concentrate better than we did. We are looking forward to Sunday now and we're confident we can give them a good match. Three wins in a row ... you couldn't get a better run-in to Wembley.

"I just hope we can get our passing going as well as we know we can, as well as the good defensive play we've been showing. If we can, we will create chances - there's no doubt about that.

"If we can keep a clean sheet that will be it!"

Jensen also believes the memory of last season's bitterly disappointing performance in the Play-off final will be an added incentive. "It would be nice to go there and make it right because we certainly didn't do ourselves justice last year," he admitted. "We'll do better this time."

Villa boss John Gregory might well be scratching his head after studying the latest reconnaissance report. It will tell of a team, organised and solid in defence, that is capable of producing attractive, free-flowing football, often through swift and incisive counter-attacks and with a striker in Gudjohnsen who is capable of scoring the most spectacular of goals. But it will also show a chances-to-goals ratio that all too often this season has beggared belief and an indescretion at the back that invited a Vale resurrection when they should have been dead and buried.

For all their superior class and greater determination against a side that was meant to be scrapping for its Division One life - but clearly didn't have the stomach for it - Wanderers should have been in a position to declare at half-time. Horton, who has promised to fight until has last breath to avoid being relegated for the first time, either as a player or manager, couldn't believe the practice-match commitment. "I don't know if one or two of them think it's gone," he moaned. "I don't but, if it has, let's at least go down fighting!" A 2-0 interval lead would have been magnificent against sterner opposition but there was a feeling that they had under-achieved - even after scoring two cracking goals.

Gudjohnsen's miss a minute before the break, after he'd sensationally turned his marker, was typical of the ones that got away. But the young Icelander remains one of the most gifted strikers outside the Premiership with skills which, even on this day, were breathtaking.

Having put one shot wide and rolling another rather tamely at Kevin Pilkington, the Wanderers' top scorer took his total to 18 with what the statisticians assure us was his 100th shot of the season. What a way to mark the century!

The highly-productive Johnston provided the initial thrust but Gudjohnsen took over and there was only one thing on his mind - a one-two with Jensen, exquisitely engineered, and a volley that sent a warning to Villa that this is the man they will have to shackle if they are going to justify their status as red-hot favourites.

The trio combined for the second goal but this time in reverse order with Gudjohnsen sending Jensen clear and the Dane cleverly coaxing Pilkington out of position before unselfishly squaring the ball to give Johnston a tap in. It was a simple chance but so many had gone begging that the Scotland winger looked hugely relieved as the ball crossed the line, as did Allardyce, who reflected later: "I was really glad when it was Claus who was going through. If it had been Dean Holdsworth or Eidur they wouldn't have passed it!" No manager ever expects an easy ride but the Wanderers' boss felt he should have been in a position to sit back and enjoy this particular afternoon. But Vale, after their miserable first half performance, made the most of their good fortune and made a game of it when Ville Viljanen was left with an all-too-easy header to convert Tony Rougier's cross.

And, if it hadn't been for some wayward finishing and timely tackling, they might have gone back to the Potteries with a point!

"They could have left me with a nice easy time of it in the second half," Allardyce said in mild chastisement of his players. "But they left me with my heart in my mouth and my tongue hanging out in the last five or six minutes thinking Port Vale might just sneak one they didn't deserve.

"At half-time me and Browny spoke about putting the three subs on and hopefully easing out one or two players who were feeling a bit fatigued. But, when we let them get a goal back , I didn't think I could have strengthened the team by putting a substitute on. That would have been a little bit risky.

"They don't make life easy for me."

Despite Birmingham and Huddersfield maintaining their advantage as the race for the play-offs enters its final furlong, Wanderers still believe the 'double' will still be on when they resume their league programme at Maine Road next Tuesday.

"All we can do is win our games, which is what we have been doing," Jensen said, satisfied that they at least aren't making it easy for their rivals. "We need the others to lose at least one or two games and I'm pretty sure they will.

"If we keep going, we still have a chance."

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