Vale suffered a narrow defeat at home to Accrington Stanley on Tuesday night, leaving Chris Morgan disappointed having felt that his team deserved to get something from the game.
A dominant first-half display saw the Valiants score once and hit the woodwork twice before Accrington equalised. With the scores level, Tom Pope was denied by an excellent save after the break and it wasn’t to be for the hosts.
Speaking to the local media after the match, Morgan said: “The verdict is that we should have got something from the game, we started really well, came out and put Accrington under a lot of pressure.
“We got the goal, but then we end up conceding and the first half flutters to an end. In the second half we just didn’t seem to get started, it’s like we didn’t really want half-time to come.
“That’s something we’ve got to be better at because that could’ve been a slight criticism at Yeovil as well, but I thought we did enough to get something out of the game tonight.
“We pushed a team that have been doing great - Accrington are right up there and I think if people were honest, I don’t think they’d have seen a big gulf between the two teams, but unfortunately the effort and endeavour doesn’t lead to anything.”
Goals have been hard to come by for Vale so far this season, but the team opened up a host of opportunities, particularly during a positive first 45 minutes.
On only converting one of those chances, Morgan admitted: “It’s massively frustrating, when you’re that much on top and you get the first, you know that a second goal gives everybody that little bit of breathing space.
“In football, you’re not always going to get what you want. If it is 1-0, you’ve got to do all the fundamentals; you’ve got to stay with your man, you’ve got to stay with your runners, you’ve got to defend the ball when it comes into the box.
“The dressing room is full of honest lads and we’ve just said in there that if the league was won on endeavour, we’d be up there, but it’s not all on that. It depends on bits of quality as well and we are struggling to find that little bit of it.”
Despite the defeat to Accrington, both Ned Kelly and Morgan have been encouraged by aspects of performance in that game and during the draw away to Yeovil Town.
Morgan said: “We’ve been really pleased, me and Ned, with the response of the players over the last two games. We’ve changed the shape a bit, the lads have taken to it, but we still haven’t got that win.
“That little bit of quality in the final third is missing and it’s decision making. We got into good areas tonight, but it’s just that final decision that is costing us.”