Andy Crosby says Wanderers’ “ruthlessness” was the difference as his Port Vale side were beaten 1-0 at Vale Park.

Dion Charles got the decisive goal on the stroke of half time, firing past Connor Ripley after pouncing on a slip from Lewis Cass.

“I think it was the proverbial game of two halves,” Crosby told the club’s YouTube channel.

“They are a really good possession-based team, a really good technical team and if you give them too much room to play, they can do what they did in the first half which is control most of the game and spend a lot of time in possession.

“We had to do a lot of running because the pitch was too big, we had to do a lot of chasing.

“When you get the ball back, you are more tired than you are normally and we probably turned it over more than we have recently.

“The response of the players second half, we got on the front foot and were more assertive and aggressive – both with and without the ball.

“We penned them back for long period of times like they did to us in the first half. We just couldn’t create that clear-cut opportunity to get ourselves back in the game.”

The hosts had chances of their own, with Nathan Baxter pulling off an excellent stop to deny Ben Garrity from close range.

Crosby added: “When you play against a team of that quality, they invariably punish you. Unfortunately, there is a turnover and the possibility of a foul in the middle of the pitch.

“They break and counter. Cass unfortunately falls over, Charles goes across the ‘keeper and it goes right by the post, so there is the quality of the execution and they were deservedly 1-0 at half time.

“We had a really good chat at half time and freshened one or two things up. The response was good but we gave ourselves a mountain to climb in the first half.”

The result saw Wanderers climb to fourth in the League One table, and Crosby was impressed by their display in the opening 45 minutes.

“They were a play-off team last season and they will expect to be right up the top of the league challenging this season,” he stated.

“They have got a really good group of players, a good manager and have been playing that way for a long period of time.

“They have got good solutions and when they smell blood, they go after you. First half, they were terrific.”