Having to travel away from home two games on the bounce after the poor result against Lincoln, Neil Aspin would have been looking to his players for a reaction. The past two games they’ve given him exactly that and Aspin has been impressed by their response.
The Valiants went to the Oldham at the weekend and came away with all three points, and would’ve felt hard done by that they couldn’t replicate that at Stevenage last night.
It was a solid point away from home nonetheless and Neil Aspin knows full well if you can’t get it in the oppositions net; keep it out your own. It’s two games on the bounce now Vale has kept a clean sheet and the manager was impressed by the overall team performance.
“Stevenage hardly made a chance. That’s down to really good defending and players working exceptionally hard. I’m very pleased, yes of course we would’ve like the three points, we tried to get them but I can’t fault the players for their attitude and their application today.
“Until we start scoring more goals we can’t afford to start conceding because if you’re not prolific in front of goal then you’ve got to be solid at the back.
"I think in any game especially when you come away from home, you must be solid, especially in that first 20 minutes and give yourself a platform to get into the game. That’s what we’ve done over the past two games and like I say, unfortunate tonight not to have won.”
The night before Tuesday's trip to Stevenage, all eyes would have been glued to the TV to see who Vale would come up against in the first round of the Emirates FA Cup, and it's safe to say the Valiants were dealt a challenging opener.
Dennis Wise plucked Vale's ball number 36 from the bowl to give them a home tie, one many fans would've been hoping for. Moments later, Dion Dublin followed that up by pulling out Sunderland FC to face Vale, arguably one of the strongest sides in the draw.
The draw was met by much excitement amongst the fans over social media as it was already been anticipated as a game that will create quite the atmosphere. Neil Aspin also showed a hint of excitement about it, and joked that Sunderland still haunts him to do this day...
"Obviously, I come from Gateshead but I supported Leeds when I was little. I always remember the 1973 cup final when Sunderland beat Leeds, they've never been my favourite team!
"It's a good draw for us in the fact they're the biggest club in the competition at this stage, they'll give us a difficult game but they'll give us a big game.
"That's what we want to be in football for, we want to have some big games and this a big game at this round of the competition. Hopefully we can go into the game with a couple of results and see what we can do."