Having seen his Port Vale team score seven goals in their last two fixtures, with 3-0 and 4-0 wins coming against Yeovil Town and Stoke City U21s respectively, Neil Aspin has been encouraged by the attacking threat his side are showing of late.

Cristian Montano has netted four of those seven goals since returning from injury, but whilst admitting that having the Colombian available for selection has come as a welcome boost, Aspin believes the whole team deserve credit.

The recent change in shape has allowed for more players to get forward and make an impact in the final third, and the gaffer inists that having three men up front gives opposition defenders more to think about.

He said: "I'm very pleased because we didn't make many chances in the Swindon game which preceded the last two, so the Yeovil result was a welcome turnaround and we looked like we could score goals.

"On Tuesday night against Stoke, I thought the goals we scored were of high quality. We were clinical and I was really pleased with how the players performed.

"You don't want to be changing formation and you don't want to be altering personnel if you can help it, but when players are inconsistent you're always searching for a formula that's going to work.

"We had to change it after Swindon. When you lose the ball and you're out of possession, invariably people think you've got one up front, but it's actually three with midfielders and full-backs getting forward as well.

"It can be an attacking formation, but when you don't have the ball you've got to work hard defensively because if you give away goals cheaply, we know how hard it is in this league once you go behind. 

"You want to be defensively sound, but we did need to get more bodies forward and create more chances - we've managed to do that."

The Valiants will head to Morecambe on Saturday in confident mood ahead of their Sky Bet League Two clash at the Globe Arena, and Aspin is hopeful that his team can get a similar result to the one they achieved last season, a 3-0 win in his first away fixture as manager.

Despite Jim Bentley's men sitting four points and four places behind Vale in the table, tAspin acknowledges that it will be another tough test for the squad and he is keen to guard against complacency heading into the match.

"It was a really good day last year and they didn't all turn out to be as nice as that, but when you play Morecambe you can't underestimate them - that's the key message I'll be getting across," Aspin reiterated.

"They get results and they get them at times when you wouldn't expect them to, so they're capable of winning any game against any team in this league. 

"We have to be at our best because we know we will get a scrap, and we will have to fight and battle. We've got to go there and roll up our sleeves as it's every bit as important as any other game.

"However, we will go there feeling confident and we need to be positive."