John Askey urged Port Vale to “push on” after his side ended a run of five successive Sky Bet League Two defeats with a 6-3 win at Bolton scoring six times away from home for the first time in 33 years.

Vale’s win came via six different scorers: Manny Oyeleke, Leon Legge, Tom Conlon, Cristian Montano, David Worrall and Nathan Smith.

They led 2-0 and 6-1, with Gethin Jones getting Bolton’s first and Eoin Doyle and Lloyd Isgrove adding some late respectability to Wanderers’ heaviest ever defeat in 23 years at their current stadium.

“I didn’t see that coming,” said Askey, under pressure after the Valiants’ dismal sequence of results in November.

“There was so much importance on the game. So, I feel relieved. But when you haven’t won, you are still fearful – even at 6-1.

“The last month has been awful. It’s like falling off a cliff.

“I didn’t expect to score six, but we could have scored more.

“We haven’t been playing too badly, but it’s nice to come to places like this and win like that. It shows what the players are capable of.

“There’s no reason why we can’t go on a run now, we have done it before.

“Hopefully, we have the confidence to push on. We have got to use this situation that we have had to make us mentally stronger. If you can come out of that, it can do you good.”

Allowing himself a rare smile, Askey added: “There were concerns even at 6-3 with two minutes to go.

“You think it would be easy and coast home, but when you haven’t won for a while, it’s not easy. We played decent football, but defensively we have got to improve.”

Bolton’s bid for a sixth straight win never got off the ground, leaving boss Ian Evatt angry and frustrated.

His response is to haul the players in for Sunday morning training.

“It was a rude awakening,” he said. “They outfought and outbattled us from minute one and it is not acceptable.

“No one would have seen this coming. But it could have been 15-all. I have never seen a team defend so badly.

“All the credit we have built up in recent weeks, five wins on the bounce, the hard work, has been undone in one game.

“We have to face the consequences because that was unacceptable at home against a team that has been struggling for results.

“We were awful. I think we went out with the wrong attitude. You have to give yourself a chance, especially in this league – do the ugly side first and the rest will follow.

“We said the right things at half-time and we still have a chance because we dominated the game.

“But at the start of both halves we shot ourselves in the foot.

“We will be in at 9am tomorrow (Sunday) to sift through the debris. They will be under no illusions that was unacceptable.”