Despite falling to a slender 1-0 defeat away to promotion-chasing Mansfield Town on Saturday afternoon, Leon Legge was impressed with the Vale's defensive display and he has lauded the back line's response to the Lincoln City loss back in October.

Since falling to a 6-2 defeat to the Imps, Neil Aspin's men have kept four clean sheets in all competitions, and Legge has been a central figure to that solidity at the back.

Despite a total of seven clean sheets being recorded from 18 Sky Bet League Two matches so far this season, the experienced defender insists that he and his teammates are constantly striving to do better.

He said: "It's not a bad tally, but as a defender you always want more because it's not nice when a goal goes in.

"My priority as a defender is to stop our opponents scoring, but I think the defence has been working well over the last few weeks.

"It's good that we can work in two formations too, and that allows us to change things up. We are quite comfortable with that, and it's probably a bit more attacking with a back four when we need it.

"My role is a little bit different in each system, going out to the wing sometimes in a back three, but we are confident in both formations so it's good for us.

"We were a little unlucky against Mansfield and Swindon lost their manager not long ago so they will want to see a result this weekend, but it's at our stadium and hopefully we can get a win."

One aspect of Legge's game that Vale have looked to utilise over the recent weeks is his long throw-in routines, but despite being able to hurl the ball into the box, the 33-year-old admits that he never practiced the technique.

Vale applied plenty of late pressure at the One Call Stadium last weekend and most of that came from his throws, and he believes it is a positive tactic given the physical prowess of players such as Tom Pope.

"I've always had a long throw to be fair and I've never really practiced it. Ever since I was young I've been able to get plenty of distance on them," Legge said.

"It's an added thing that I've got and the gaffer has asked me to use it, so we've just stuck with it. 

"At other clubs where I've been it has often been used at times where we were a goal down or trying to get back into a game, but this is the most I've ever used it.

"If we work on it a little bit more you might start to see a few goals coming from them. It can cause a bit of havoc as well, so if we keep putting them in, we may profit from them."