Vale will keep fighting to stay up, says Brady

Port Vale will have "one hell of a go" at staying in League One, says manager Jon Brady.

Vale's chances of staying up look very slim, 11 points adrift of safety at the bottom of the table.

They have nine games to play - two more than Exeter City, who are one place above the relegation zone - but need to improve on a record of two wins in their last 11 league matches.

"If we're not going to be good enough at the end of the season, we're not going to make it, at least what we're going to do is give it one hell of to go," said Brady, who has been in charge at Vale since early January.

"I feel that the players have, overall, apart from one game where we probably hold our hands up and it wasn't good enough from start to finish - the Bradford game [a 2-0 loss].

"We've made changes since we've come in, we've been a lot more competitive and we've got a group who are really pulling together.

"They're giving everything they've got."

Goals, as well as wins, have been hard to come by for Vale with only 29 scored in their 37 league games so far - only Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship, with 24, have scored fewer in the English Football League.

Despite four teams having a worse expected goals ratio (xG) in the division, Port Vale's conversion rate is only 6.94% according to Opta,, external who also put their goals-to-expected goals-ratio at -12.22%.

Brady said the fact that their leading scorers - Ben Waine and Jayden Stockley - only have three league goals each was "not good enough".

"Unfortunately at the moment we seem to score and then try and protect the lead," he said.

"You are doing the right things, you're getting in those positions. But you can't work on ifs, buts and maybes.

"They're learning, but the hardest thing in football is to put the ball in the back of the net.

"It's decision-making in that moment. It's in and around the box at times, taking that extra pass. When we shoot from 35-40 yards I go nuts."

Vale go to Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday [15:00 GMT] hoping to cut the gap to safety to single figures.

And Brady says he will not stop telling his players they can still stay up.

"I have to come in and bounce in each day and lead from the front and show our players, our staff that we're positive," he said.

"We have belief that we can win games, perform better than we have done and get the results."