Port Vale manager Darren Moore believes his side are heading in the right direction after moving into the League Two play-off places with a 2-1 victory over Swindon.
George Byers and Brandon Cover bagged the goals as Vale rose up to fifth spot with a third win from their last four matches.
Swindon scored a late consolation courtesy of captain Will Wright’s free-kick and also hit the post through Aaron Drinan’s drilled effort when the game was goalless.
But Vale were deserved winners and Moore was delighted with his team’s showing.
“I thought it was a good performance,” he said. “Another step in the right direction in terms of the performance that we want to see at Vale Park.
“I don’t think anybody can have any complaints with the three points today. I thought it was a dominant display.
“I probably thought from their point of view they had two moments in the game – they hit the post and then of course [there was] an exceptional free-kick, which we know the boy’s got it in his locker.
“But I thought, on the balance of play, we deserved the three points today and it’s credit to the boys in terms of the hard work they’ve put in over the week that we’ve had.
“We felt today that we wanted to go up front with almost like three number nines and put Swindon on the back foot.
“We know Swindon are a possession-based team, we know they like to dominate the ball.
“But we thought, in our own backyard, we forced the initiative and forced them into errors.”
A fourth defeat of the season for Swindon keeps them in 21st place – three points above the relegation zone.
Boss Mark Kennedy was extremely disappointed with his side’s display.
“In terms of our football performance, I thought we were below par today,” he said.
“In terms of the game, it was a really ugly, physical game. We were obviously well down on that. We knew that coming into the game. There’s really not a lot we can do about that.
“We’re missing a huge amount of height, physicality and power. It is what it is.
“So we knew today could have been a brutal afternoon. I thought it was. I thought Port Vale did everything to us that they’d set out to do.
“I thought we dealt with it well on the whole. We rode our luck a couple of times undoubtedly. There were a couple of balls in the first half that I was waiting for the net to bulge.
“I’m talking about set-pieces, every set-piece, anything in the build-up [to the ball] coming into our box.”
