Adams began his professional career at Gillingham in 1979

Port Vale manager Micky Adams says the recent cold snap has forced him to abandon modern training methods in favour of a classic approach.

The club's training ground has been rendered unusable by the snow so Adams has taken to using the stands at Vale Park to keep his squad in shape.

He told BBC Radio Stoke: "There's some nice terracing and a concourse at the Vale that we've utilised.

"The players don't like it but maybe it'll help us," added Adams.

The Vale manager, 49 said the old-fashioned techniques were inspired by methods he encountered as a player.

We've got a job to do over Christmas. Unlike everyone else who can be out eating and drinking, we can't Port Vale defender Adam Yates

"I'm an old school manager," he said. "It never used to hurt me.

"I started off at the lower end at Gillingham and, on the first day of pre-season, we used to do an eight-mile run without any water.

"Now they can't get enough drink inside them so the medical science has moved on.

"But maybe it'll help us. That's why we're top of the league because we're perhaps doing a little bit of fitness work other teams are not."

The weather forced the postponement of Saturday's scheduled home game with Stevenage, giving Adams' table-topping side a week without a competitive fixture.

Their last game was the FA Cup win over Accrington on 26 November and Adams has been forced to improvise in order to maintain fitness levels within the squad.

"While the weather's good we have a tremendous training ground and an indoor weights gymnasium but, at the moment, we've got nowhere to train.

"We've got no indoor facility or astroturf to go on so we've had to ring around and try and get an indoor facility.

"That's the frustrating thing from my point of view. If there's one criticism of the club at the moment it's the training facilities when we get weather like we've got."

Yates has featured in all of Vale's 18 league games this season

Vale's Adam Yates says none of the squad will be celebrating too hard over Christmas as Adams keeps a watchful eye on their waistlines.

Saturday's trip to Morecambe heralds the start of a run of nine games in little more than a month for the Vale.

And Yates says the busy festive period means that players must watch what they eat.

"We've got a job to do over Christmas," the 27-year-old full-back told BBC Radio Stoke. "Unlike everyone else, who can be out eating and drinking, we can't.

"The manager's monitoring our weight and he'll be monitoring our fitness over the next month more intensely than he ever does.

"If you're putting on weight and not maintaining your fitness you'll be out of the team.

"I've worked hard to be in the team as every other player has and if you're out of the team because you've not looked after yourself, more fool you."

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