Walking off the pitch at Vale Park after suffering a narrow 2-1 defeat at home to Newport County, Neil Aspin admitted he felt the fans were behind the team despite the result.

On the day, the Valiants deserved at least a point. The pressure applied and the chances created encouraged Neil and though it wouldn't fall for them that weekend, the following week against Forest Green, Vale's dominance and efforts were rewarded with a point. 

Heading into this weekends Sky Bet League Two fixture against Northampton Town, the manager is looking for a win and a performance that impresses the fans, but is aware of the threat the Cobblers pose.

"The supporters have proven that if the team puts in the effort and commitment and plays some good football like they did in the Newport game, they'll accept if you don't get the right results and that's something we have to bare in mind.

"We have to keep the level of performance up and you will expect if we can perform well then results will follow. It's important we don't disappoint the home support by not playing well. We want to get a win obviously but I think we need to put in a good performance as well. 

"Last week we played against a team who are unbeaten on the back of a couple of results and I thought we more than matched them. I don't treat Northampton any different to FGR, I know for a fact they should have more points then they have. They've dominated teams but not got results, they're a better team than the position in the table would imply."

Heading into the weekend, Aspin confirmed Leon Legge had taken part in training and looks to be within a good chance of being involved, but Cristian Montano has yet to train with the squad this week and will not feature against Northampton.

With the exception of Monty, Neil Aspin is looking to pick a starting XI from a fully fit squad, a luxury the manager has very rarely seen since his arrival. 

Aspin ruled out any suggestion of signing free agents to add to his squad and says he is happy with his squad going into the match at the weekend but is still looking at one or two players to improve their performances.

"We all know that there's some players that need to do better. We're hopeful that our performance levels can stay high as they have been the last two games.

"But you're always looking to do better and we've got several players who are probably a little bit below par at the moment.

"They're attitude however has been good and they're working hard to rectify that."