Neil Aspin has lauded the performance of his squad during Tuesday night's away trip to Yeovil Town, with the Valiants coming out 3-0 winners courtesy of a Cristian Montano brace and a Connell Rawlinson header.
With successive defeats against Mansfield Town and Swindon Town coming before the fixture in Somerset, the Vale boss was eager to see a response from his players, and he was delighted to secure three points in style.
"It was pretty much a perfect away performance, but we could've scored five or six goals tonight. That's probably the only disappointing thing because we were really dominant," Aspin said.
"We played some very good football and it's been a long time coming, but that was the best performance we've had, certainly away from home, for about a year.
"I'm always conscious that supporters are making a long journey and you want to reward them with a win, but it's all about getting the performance and the effort.
"Tonight, not only was the effort there, but the quality was there from start to finish as well - I thought we were excellent.
"We had to do something different because we haven't been scoring goals away from home, so we changed the shape and worked on a few things as we had been giving away possession too easily.
"It's all down to the players. I can only tell them what I think and what I see, but they've got to do it out on the pitch. They carried it out brilliantly tonight and it was a great performance."
One thing that Aspin was particularly pleased about was the delivery from set pieces, and he feels as if his side haven't done enough to make the most of dead ball situations so far during the 2018/19 campaign.
Antony Kay was welcomed back into the midfield and the manager reserved special praise for the 36-year-old who has had to be patient for his opportunity.
He has been aiding the team's preparation for set pieces over the recent weeks despite not featuring regularly, and they paid dividends at Huish Park, resulting in a goal and numerous chances to the delight of Aspin.
He said: "I must give some credit to Antony Kay because he's got a great desire to keep playing, and I wanted to keep him on board to make sure he is enthusiastic, so I gave him the responsibility of organising set pieces.
"He's taken that on board, but now he's actually on the pitch, he was there to help orchestrate them. He was a voice for me out there and we've missed that of late.
"Our delivery from set plays was good and we looked a threat, which is something we have to be because we've got enough height and players who can head the ball.
"It was an area that we weren't exploiting enough, so it's good to see us being more efficient with them."