Neil Aspin has backed his Port Vale side to return back to winning ways following the 3-1 loss to Lincoln City at the weekend.

The Valiants were on an excellent run before two losses in a week put Aspin’s side on-hold to continue climbing the table.

Danny Pugh got the only goal for Aspin’s men as The Imps impressed on their own turf with goals from Luke Waterfall, Matt Green and Michael Bostwick.

“Aspo” was disappointed with his side in the defeat at Sincil Bank and believes that Vale were too negative on the ball and should have been better.

“I won’t make any excuses because we simply weren’t good enough,” said Aspin.

“I can only remember us having a 10-15-minute spell before half-time where we played alright, other than that, we didn’t keep the ball well enough and got pushed back onto our back foot.

“We were never in the game during the second-half, the goals we conceded were disappointing.”

The gaffer reiterated that his side must be better a number of times as he asks his side to be better in possession and taking advantage of the opposition.

He said: “You can blame luck at times but we must be better.

“We can’t rely on luck and if we were going to do that, it would be wrong of us. We must be a lot better, we have to hold our hands up if we are going to get away from the bottom of the table.”

The FA Cup returns to Vale Park next with Yeovil Town making the trip North for a place in the third round. Aspin says that the league is the main priority, but hopes that next two cup games can reignite The Valiants’ form going into the league afterwards.

“The league is our most important competition,” says Aspin.

“The cup games are important, but I hope that success in the cup can reignite us back in the league. It can only boost our confidence if get some good results.

“I’m not kidding anybody at the moment, but the second-half against Mansfield and the performance at Lincoln simply wasn’t good enough.”