Poor decision making and defensive errors have been identified by Askey as key areas that need working on following yesterdays defeat at Grimsby Town.
After taking an early lead through an own goal, the Vale failed to build on it, with Grimsby responding almost instantly through a well worked free kick which came as a result of a cheap foul given away on the edge of the box.
Heading in at half time, Askey would've been hopeful that his side could regain control of the game and retake the lead but Grimsby Town had other ideas, scoring another four in the second half to make it an afternoon to forget for the Valiants.
Pope and Cullen were introduced to add some more firepower to the Vale attack but Askey said in doing so the moves left them vulnerable as the back and they were punished for it. Smith fired in a second for the Vale after Cullen's knock down, but it wasn't enough come full time.
A frustrated Askey said his side struggled with the conditions during the game but did not want to make excuses their performance, instead deciding to focus on working hard to regain the form from prior games before next week.
He said: “Really disappointing, the manner of the goals that they scored from, obviously we had great start, a little bit of luck and we get a goal, and we’ve gone and conceded a soft goal again.
“They were all goals that could have been prevented if people had done their jobs properly, but maybe they got carried away with having one or two decent games, but in football you’ve got to have the same attitude every time you play.
“I don’t want to make excuses, we’ve just got to learn from it and realise that we have been playing some really good football, should have won more than what we’ve won, but we’ve got to get back quickly to where we were on Tuesday.”
Despite the result, Askey emphasised after the game the importance of not getting too low after Vale's first defeat of the season, as there have been plenty of positives to take from the opening five games of the campaign.
The gaffer remains hopeful that the performance is merely a blip after a decent start to the season, and things can get back on track at Vale Park on Saturday against Cambridge United.
Home form and performances have been key for Askey who has previously stated his desire to make Vale Park a fortress, something they have done well so far this season, and is hopeful his team will bounce back next week.
He said: “We were pushing, they went three up and we got it back to 3-2, so you’ve got to go for it, there’s no use sitting back and probably that’s one of the reasons we got done.
“We weren’t able to get the ball wide and get crosses in, but hopefully this is just a blip and we dig in and we go again.
“We’ve got to get wins at home and we started on Tuesday and we’ve got to replicate that now, and if you’re picking up points away from home then you’re not doing so bad, but it’s important we get our home form right.”