John Askey says Port Vale’s defence must improve

Port Vale manager John Askey says the Fleetwood friendly game will provide a greater test and the defence will “have to defend a lot better.”

Askey was critical of the performance of the backline during the 2-1 win over Leek telling the official Port Vale website: “It will be completely different. We will have to defend a lot better than we did (against Leek). We hardly won a header and that is through lack of aggression.

“I think some of them just wanted to get through the game without getting hurt. But Fleetwood will be a little bit different and a higher tempo, especially on our pitch.

“There were things from the game that I wasn’t happy with but overall the fitness was okay. I just think at times we need to be a little bit more aggressive, one or two.”