Newcastle Town 1 Port Vale 1

Attendance: 1,266

Striker Marc Richards should be fit to play in Vale's first game over in Ireland, despite being forced off after picking up an injury in Saturday's 1-1 draw against Newcastle Town, says Micky Adams.

"He suffered with a deadleg, but it's just a matter of icing it down and he should be fit for Tuesday's game against Athlone Town." said the Vale boss.

Richards limped off after 13 minutes following a clash with Newcastle 'keeper Danny Reed a couple of minutes earlier and was replaced by Sean Rigg.

The Vale players looked heavy-legged during the opening forty five minutes and trailed at he break following Kyle Diskin's opener midway through the first half.

Alan Nagington touched the ball back into the path of team mate Diskin and he fired a superb shot onto the top right hand corner of the net from just outside the box, despite Vale 'keeper Chris Martin getting his fingertips to the ball.

Vale had plenty of second half chances to level the scores, but left it until three minutes from time before restoring parity, and the equaliser had an element of luck about it.

Justin Richards had the ball in the net on 72 minutes with a clinical finish, driving low to the 'keeper's left from 15 yards, but he had controlled the ball with his hand and his effort was rightly ruled out.

Despite all of the pressure from the League Two outfit, it looked like the home side were about to record a famous victory, but on 87 minutes Vale were level.

The ball fell to the feet John McCombe inside the Newcastle box and the Vale defender tried a shot. It looked to be going wide, but a deflection off firstly the substitute goalkeeper Greg Smith, then defender Ryan Dicker saw the ball nestle in the Newcastle net.

Micky Adams said after the game: "We got out of the game what we came for, and that was more fitness.

"I thought we looked a bit lethargic during the first half and at times we didn't pass the ball as well as we should, but we picked it up in the second half, but you could see how tired our players were today.

"I am not making excuses at all, but on Friday we really put them through it in training, which is madness really the day before a match and the tiredness showed today.

"But it is pre-season and at the moment we are exactly where we want to be with our preparations ahead of the trip to Ireland.

Match Report: Dave Johnson

Keep checking the Vale website for all the latest news