Port Vale’s assistant manager Dave Kevan believes that Vale can take confidence from yesterday’s defeat on the road.

The Vale performance across the full 90 minutes gave Kevan a number of positives to take away from the game, as they came to a difficult opposition, held their own and took it right to the wire.

To compete so well with a side of the quality and form of Newport will encourage the team going forward as they know they can go to any team and take the game to them.

Kevan spoke about how they are disappointed to have not come away with any points from the game but the players will keep their heads held high as they fought hard until the final whistle.

He said: “We’ve pushed them all the way, we finished the game strongly, we grew into the game second-half, we knew it was always going to be a tough 90 minutes but we felt we more than matched them.   

“Newport are on a fantastic run and you can see why, they’ve got some good players, they have a way of playing which is difficult to counteract and play against but today I felt we more than matched them and we’ve got to be encouraged by that.

“We’re all disappointed, of course we are, we don’t want to be losing football matches but sometimes you can lose in a manner, and to a man we’ve absolutely contested every ball that’s bounced on that pitch today.”

Kevan was pleased Vale’s chance creation as they had 12 attempts at goal, including a Leon Legge header that hit the bar and a Cristian Montano free header that went just wide.  

To create so much against such a strong team who are in a great run of form, going unbeaten in 13 games heading into the match, was pleasing for Kevan but he pointed out the need to take your chances in games like this.

He highlighted just how important it is to capitalise on opportunities in front of goal when away from home, as efforts are hard to create and every point that can be picked up on the road is vital in the season.

The next chance Vale have to start picking up points again is next Saturday when they face Plymouth Argyle at Vale Park, a place the Valiants remain unbeaten at in the league and Kevan remains confident their form will continue.  

He said: “Over the 90 minutes we felt we more than competed with them and we were unfortunate that we didn’t take a couple of our own chances.

“Away from home, chances are a rarity really and we’ve managed to fashion out three or four and it’s just disappointment that we couldn’t find the back of the net with one of them.

 “We’ll be more than ready by the time Plymouth comes round on Saturday, we’ll learn from this and we’ll try and improve on this and it’ll be nice to be back in front of our home supporters and hopefully give them something to cheer about.”