Port Vale 0-0 Fleetwood: Goalless at Vale

Fleetwood boss Steven Pressley was pleased with a hard-earned point at Port Vale, but was also looking forward to seeing a replay of Antoni Sarcevic's '1966 moment'.

Sarcevic's 20-yard shot two minutes into the second half was the closest anyone came to settling what was a largely dull affair on a difficult playing surface.

The midfielder's fierce drive rattled the underside of the crossbar and there was a suspicion that the ball had crossed the line before it bounced away from the Vale goal.

Pressley likened the moment to Geoff Hurst's famous goal for England in the 1966 World Cup final, and said: "The angle which the ball came down suggested it could have crossed the line, but there was no way I could see from where I was. It will be interesting to see the replay.

"It would have been nice for Antoni to score. He has been out injured and in the treatment room for some time, but I thought he played very well.

"We were resilient and all of the lads worked very hard on what is an exceptionally big pitch. Our organisation and determination levels were very good.

"All week in training we had worked on breaking at pace and we did that in the second half. There were a couple of great counter-attacks when I felt we should have scored.

"Vale's home record is very good so to come here and earn a clean sheet is satisfying. We will take a point and move on."

Neither goalkeeper had a shot to save in the opening half-hour with off-target attempts from Fleetwood's Robert Grant and Ajay Leitch-Smith of Vale the only action of note.

The contest finally sprung to life two minutes before the interval when visiting custodian Chris Maxwell showed brilliant reflexes to deny Theo Robinson and Sam Foley in quick succession.

Fleetwood made sure the start of the second half was more entertaining as Sarcevic's shot rattled the frame of the goal before Grant drew a fine save from Jak Alnwick.

Leitch-Smith then brought the best out of Maxwell when the striker's deflected shot was kept out at the keeper's near post.

But that was the last of the serious goalmouth action before Vale substitute Michael O'Connor curled a 30-yard free-kick wide in stoppage time.

Vale boss Rob Page said: "I thought we created enough in the first half to come in with a lead. For all the possession Fleetwood had they didn't really hurt us.

"We didn't have that quality on the ball today and that was disappointing. The lads set very high standards with their performance against Coventry last weekend and unfortunately couldn't live up to that today.

"But it's a clean sheet, another point and we are still in ninth place and only five points off the play-off places. We will all rally together and push on.

"It's also 12 games at home unbeaten and I'm proud of the boys for that. We've played well at home and it's frustrating not to win today, but we stick together and move on.

"We've got a great game to look forward to at Sheffield United next weekend and we will start to prepare for that."