Defender Gareth Owen spoke of the players' frustration as they struggle to find any consistency after a run of results in which Vale win one match and then lose the next.

He said: "There are two ways of looking at it. After a defeat we have bounced back to get the win, or you can look at it and say we can't string two wins together.

"It is frustrating an nobody is more frustrated than the players, because we can't really put our fingers on what has been going wrong.

"There is no different mindset depending on who we are playing. It is an annoying habit we seem to have picked up and it is one we have got to eradicate if we are going to be a successful team either this season or next season.

"We have missed a fair few chances and also we have conceded goals that we probably shouldn't have done, and that's football in a nutshell - you take your own chances and stop them at the other end.

"We need to improve in both areas. We have done okay as a defence so far this season and going back to 4-4-2 enables us to get forward more and we are creating more chances.

"Any footballer will tell you, after a defeat you want another game to come around as soon as possible.

"We all know what went wrong on Saturday and we will all be going out now on Tuesday to put things right.

"The commitment levels are there, but sometimes things just don't go right for us."