But Loft confident Vale can take the three points

Vale come across one or two familiar places when they take on Chesterfield on Monday afternoon and one in particular stands out.

Former skipper Marc Richard teamed up with the Spireites in the summer, believing he had more of a chance of promotion with Chesterfield than he did with Port Vale.

He will be keen to prove a point when he lines up against his former side on Monday, just as he did back in December when he was instrumental in the visitors’ 2-0 win at Vale Park.

Doug Loft took over the captaincy when Richards left the club, but warns Vale will have to keep tabs on the former Vale man if they are to get anything from the game.

He said: “When they came here earlier on in the season I think he bullied us to be fair. He is a very good player but we know all about him and we have got to deal with him. We owe him one for earlier in the season.

“The pressure is off them a little bit and sometimes that makes teams play better, but whatever way you put it Chesterfield have got a very good team and it’s going to be a very hard game.

“We will try not to focus on them too much, we’ll go and work on our game and I think we have the better squad and team so if we go there and do what we can I am sure we can come away with three points.”

Vale’s first aim will be to win the game, but they know that every point they can get between now and the end of the season will count and could end up earning them the big prize.

Loft continued: “What we need to do is keep getting points on the board, a draw or a win, just as long as we keep putting points on the board and at the end of the season we will see where we are.

“Some people have been in this situation before and some haven’t, it is up to the older players and the senior players to maybe get the younger players through it. We need to stick together as a team and battle through it together.