Port Vale manager John Askey has praised his players effort and commitment after they came away with all three points at Northampton Town yesterday afternoon.

Admitting he was fearing the worst, Askey watched on from the sidelines as Vale came from a goal down with 10 men to complete the most unlikely of turnarounds, thanks to goals from David Worrall and Tom Pope.

The Valiants fell a goal behind after just five minutes when Sam Hoskins tapped in from close range from what appeared to be from an offside position. Askey was then dealt with another huge blow when Leon Legge was dismissed on the 40th minute.

Despite the odds, Askey's side failed to let this affect them as David Worrall slotted home just before half time to equal the scores whilst Tom Pope couldn't have timed his 100th Vale goal any better, as he stepped up to slot home a late second half penalty to seal the points.

"With David scoring the goal just before half time, that gave us a massive lift and the second half I thought we were the better team. It just shows that things are improving and hopefully they can keep improving. 

"We had a bit of luck in the first half, the second half was down to hard work and a real good team display from every single one of them.

"The players commited themselves and if they do that for 90 mintues as I say they'll win a lot of games. It should give the players bags of confidence!"

The result in the south of England was huge for the Vale and lifted them as high as 19th in the league table, eight points clear of the relegation zone. It ended a month which saw an excellent turn around in results for the Valiants, who completed March unbeaten away from home.

Tom Pope's late penalty was his 100th goal in a Vale shirt and secured John Askey his third win as Port Vale manager. Popey became just the third player ever in a Vale shirt to reach 100 plus goals which Askey says is a brilliant achievement.

It wasn't all plane sailing for Askey watching from the touchline who described the penalty as "taking an age to get in", but when it did cross the line, he was delighted.

"It's a great achievement for Tom, I can't imagine there's many players who have played for Port Vale who have reached that figure. He's been a great servant to the football club and hopefully he will be for another two or three years.

"Obviously we're really pleased for Tom. Like the rest of us, Tom's pleased we got all three points this afternoon.

"It puts us a little bit safer. We never get too far ahead of ourselves, we just move onto the next game. Obviously it's a big local derby and we'll put everything into that and get a good result there."