Following back-to-back clean sheets away from home, Neil Aspin wants to build on the win at Oldham Athletic and the draw against Stevenage with another positive result at home to Bury this Saturday.
The Shakers will make the trip to Burslem in confident mood as they are on a 7-game unbeaten run in all competitions, but despite acknowledging that it will be a tricky fixture, the manager wants his players to be positive in their approach.
Goals have been hard to come by for the Valiants so far this season, but the defensive organisation has provided a real boost as Aspin's men fight for points in Sky Bet League Two. However, the boss is eager to see his squad firing in the final third.
He said: “We’re not prolific in terms of scoring goals and until that changes, we are going to have to make sure we don’t give many goals away.
"The first goal in any game is important and that has been proven this season, and we have to work hard to get ourselves in front to give us the best chance of winning games.
“Ricky Miller will always be in my thoughts because I’ve signed him, and I believe that he can score goals. On Tuesday night he was a threat when he came on, working hard and having a few shots on goal.
“That showed more people what he is capable of, and now he has to do that on a more regular basis now. When he has his chance from the start, he needs to make sure he plays like that for the 90 minutes."
Vale will be looking to stretch their own unbeaten run to four games in all competitions on Saturday, and the manager insists that the defensive organisation shown over the last week must continue.
Aspin expects Bury to be tough opponents to overcome, but he wants the Vale players to put in a strong performance in order to make amends to the supporters who witnessed the defeat to Lincoln City, an uncharacteristic display.
He said: “If you take the Lincoln game out of the equation, we’ve been fairly solid defensively. The number of goals against in those games has been decent and we’ve kept six clean sheets.
“That’s because the team have worked hard to defend and also score goals, but other than that one game we have been quite solid. We just have to continue that all the way through the season.
“We must pick up points at home because every team wants to be winning in front of their own fans. We’ve had a difficult run of games with Exeter, MK Dons and Lincoln, and I would put Bury in the same category as them.
“They are another one of the teams that are going to do well this season, so we’ve been unfortunate that we’ve had them one after another, but we have to ensure we are better than we were in the last home game.
“We can’t concede early and give ourselves a difficult job. We need to be competitive and put them under pressure to try and score goals, we need to be positive."