Opposition view: Vale's Askey thrilled to defy the conditions and beat 'top team' Cobblers

David Worrall's 73rd minute header was enough to end Town's 11-match unbeaten run at home and lift Vale to ninth in League Two, level on points with the play-offs.

It was a blustery afternoon at the PTS and Vale came under heavy pressure at times but they held on for a clean sheet as goalkeeper Scott Brown made three fine saves to leave Northampton frustrated.

"It was a really good battling performance against one of the top teams in this league," said Askey.

"Everything favoured the opposition in terms of the conditions and the way that they play with the long throws.

"They're all over six foot so to come away with three points in conditions like that is fantastic and the players showed a lot of guts and determination.

"Scott was tremendous in goal but our defence handled their centre-forwards very well and won a lot of headers.

"Overall it was a really good team performance and it gives me a lot of satisfaction because you can't always win pretty and today was far from pretty but to a man everyone dug in and fought, especially in the second-half.

"It was great to score such a good goal as well and now I think we're level on points with the play-offs.

"It's great to be in that position at this time of the season. We've talked about trying to get promoted this season and hopefully today will give the players confidence that we can get results no matter what type of opposition we come up against."