It was a disappointing defeat for Vale last night, as they suffered defeat in the Checkatrade Trophy to Mansfield Town.
Despite suffering defeat, the destiny of qualifying is still in the Valiants hands, as they know a win against Doncaster Rovers will see them through.
The competition enabled manager Bruno Ribeiro to make six changes to his side who played against Coventry and he used all of those available to him.
However, Assistant Manager Michael Brown believes that those players who came in didn’t get a hold in the game.
He said: “It wasn’t the best for the lads who came in or for those who play regularly they struggled tonight and when you do make six changes the momentum changes.
“Also it wasn’t a huge crowd in regards to that adrenaline and it was the same for both teams, they had to raise the games but we know what the tournament is like early on and we have to get trough that and battle on.”
On his thoughts of the game, Brown didn’t feel the side did enough attacking to get the breakthrough that they needed.
He added: “We didn’t get going we tried to play with a couple of passages of play with Quentin and Kiko etc and a few balls into the box form Kiko but apart form that it was extremely disappointing.
“I don’t think we go the ball down and played like we can do and they came here and frustrated us and defended well, but we didn’t do enough going forward. “