Port Vale missed out on a share of the points after falling to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Scunthorpe United at Vale Park.
Harry McKirdy had a goal disallowed in stoppage time, meaning that Abo Eisa’s first-half strike was enough for the visitors to take the points home.
In a fairly even opening period, neither side created any clear-cut chances, with both teams playing their way into the fixture.
Leon Legge provided the game’s first half-chance, when Manny Oyeleke’s ball into the box was met by the head of the skipper from six-yards out, but he couldn’t get enough power on the effort to seriously test Mark Howard in the Scunthorpe goal.
But it was Scunthorpe who broke the deadlock in the 27th minute of the game, when Abo Eisa cut inside from 25-yards before unleashing a dipping effort into the far corner, leaving Scott Brown with no chance and Vale with work to do.
Vale dominated the majority of possession for the remainder of the half, but rarely troubled the Scunthorpe goal, and were left trailing by a goal at the break.
The Valiants came out at the break with intent, with Tom Conlon’s long-range effort flying just over the bar within 60 seconds of the restart.
And Conlon had another effort from similar range just three minutes later, this time his effort sailed wide of Howard’s post.
The Valiants had a scare in the 57th minute, when the Iron almost doubled their lead, when Ryan Loft sprinted down the right-wing, driving into the box, before his drilled effort hit the inside of the post, before Brown was able to gather the ball.
Vale had a golden chance to equalise in the 66th minute when substitute Devante Rodney played a brilliant through ball to another substitute in Cristian Montano, but Mark Cullen’s effort from Montano’s low ball into the box was skewed wide.
On the 70-minute mark Vale had a number of good opportunities, when David Worrall’s effort from inside the box was headed clear by a Scunthorpe defender, before Conlon’s free-kick from the edge of the box was deflected over the bar and away from danger.
In the last minute of normal time, the Valiants felt that they had a shout for a penalty, when Harry McKirdy’s effort inside the box seemed to hit the arm of a Scunthorpe defender, but Leigh Doughty waved away the Vale protests.
After two minutes into the four minutes of added time, Vale thought they had grabbed an equaliser, when McKirdy’s scrambled effort crossed the line, but the referee adjudged there to be a foul in the build-up and disallowed the goal, meaning that Scunthorpe took the points with Vale having the chance to respond at Newport County on Saturday.
Port Vale: Brown, Clark, Smith, Legge, Crookes (Montano 51’), Oyeleke, Conlon, Burgess (McKirdy 63’), Amoo (Rodney 65’), Worrall, Cullen.
Unused subs: Visser, Brisley, Pope.
Scunthorpe United: Howard, Rowe, McGahey, Onariase, Brown, Gilliead, Beestin, Spence, Eisa (Bedeau 85’), Loft (Green 74’), Van Veen (McAtee 54’).
Unused subs: Watson, Hippolyte, Hallam, Dunnwald-Turan.