Port Vale boss Darrell Clarke admitted his side got away with an “atrocious” first half as they picked up a 1-1 draw at Stevenage

Although Devante Rodney opened the scoring for Vale at the Lamex Stadium, it was otherwise all Stevenage in the opening 45 minutes, with Luke Norris deservedly levelling just after the half-hour mark.

The home side could and probably should have led but, having gone in level, Vale then stepped up their performance and were much improved in a scoreless second half.

Clarke said: “Let’s not paper over that first half, that was atrocious, not good enough, not anywhere near good enough, but we got a good reaction second half.

“That can happen sometimes in this league where you’re nowhere near it and we weren’t first half. We weren’t doing the basics of the game right, looked all over shop, fortunate to score a good goal.

“They equalised but we never felt comfortable in the first half, so I made the changes I thought were necessary for the second half to give us better impetus in the game and I thought we probably edged the second half.

“One or two players coming in for an opportunity didn’t take that and I need more from one or two. The reaction was good in the second half though, really positive, on the front foot. We need that, it’s not always going to go rosy.

“We’ve probably been a little bit unlucky not to have got points in our last games and today perhaps a little bit fortunate to get a point.”

Jake Reeves and Ben Coker both hit the post for Stevenage in the first half, with Norris getting their equaliser from a powerful free-kick.

But they were not able to maintain that intensity after the break, much to the disappointment of boss Alex Revell.

He said: “It was a very dominant first half. I thought it was probably one of our best performances in the first half, despite a really poor goal.

“I thought we completely dominated, created chances, possession and really exciting moments, but what you can’t do then is let those moments slip away.

“Second half we turned into a team that we’re not and we can’t do that.

“We are a team that moves the ball, drops out, works, intense. The minute we start going long and relying on second balls, we’re not that team.

“We want to make sure that we create more, but in those moments you’ve got to be cool.

“We say to them ‘you’ve got to be ice, you’ve got to make the right decision’, like Norris did for the free-kick, he stepped up and hit it as hard as he could and it went in.”