Vale captain Leon Legge is pleased that the Valiants are back in the play-off places, despite being frustrated at not taking all three points against Scunthorpe United at Vale Park on Saturday.
Both Mark Cullen and Nathan Smith were on the scoresheet for the Valiants, but despite leading twice, Vale could only earn a 2-2 draw following a late George Miller equaliser for the visitors.
“It’s frustrating, I thought we did enough to get the three points, but for them to score like that at the death is a bitter pill to swallow,” said Vale skipper Legge.
“We have to go again and work on that in the week.”
“There’s a positive there (in regards to Vale being back in the play-offs), obviously we’d like to have the extra two points, but we’re right back in there and still within a shout.”
Meanwhile, the captain was full of praise for Nathan Smith, who returned to a centre back role following his recent performances at right-back.
“He’s a good centre-half and he’s still learning the trade week-in week-out.”
And ahead of the final ten games, Legge is grounded about his sides chances of reaching the play-offs.
“We’ve worked this hard to get where we are and for the final stretch we have to keep that momentum up and stay in with a shout.”
Looking ahead to next week’s away clash at Cheltenham Town, Legge says it will be a tough game for the Valiants.
“It’s a tough one to call really, we got a good result in the FA Cup against them, so they may be looking for revenge for that, so we’ve got to be prepared for that.”
“We’ll look at how we won there last time and hopefully we’ll get a positive result again.”
Meanwhile, assistant manager Dave Kevan, was also happy about being back in the play-offs despite the blow of conceding a late equaliser.
“In the first-half I thought we played some good football, and could of gone in at the break with a healthier lead, but we were generally quite comfortable in the first-half” said assistant manager Kevan.
“In the second-half we never really got going, and never really got control of the game, but credit to Scunthorpe they kept plugging away and made it hard for us and we’re disappointed with the draw.”
Vale may have pushed themselves back into the play-offs but Kevan isn’t looking too far ahead.
“We’ve got to take each game as it comes.”
“There’s going to be ups and downs in the next ten games, we’ve just got to make sure we recover quickly, whether it be an up or a down, and just move onto the next one.”
Ahead of the final ten games of the season, Kevan’s aim for the squad is simple.
“Our aim is to win as many games as possible and see where it takes us."