‘Fouled our player - didn’t hit hand’: Port Vale fume over key incident as they have ‘better’ of Portsmouth

And boss Andy Crosby was insistent his side had the better of the first half, as they caused John Mousinho’s men problems in their eventual 2-0 defeat.

But the Vale manager acknowledged his side had to be ruthless if they were to expect a return at the leaders.

The visitors had good chances as they pushed Pompey back, before two Colby Bishop goals in five second-half minutes - including a spot-kick after Kofi Balmer was adjudged to have handled in the box.

He said: ‘To come to the league leaders who have been unbeaten 20-plus games and create the number of opportunities we had and not work the keeper enough (is frustrating).

‘When we came under the pressure we expected with the way they’re playing, their confidence and the crowd we couldn’t see out that spell.

‘The referee gives a penalty for which our players are adamant there was a foul on our player and it didn’t hit his hand anyway.

‘Those things generally go against you, maybe, but the frustrating thing from our point of view is we’ve come here with a game plan to utilise the strength of our players and we got into really good areas.

‘We got into the final third and got balls into the box, but we have to be more clinical and ruthless when we get those opportunities. To have 14 shots when we come to the leaders, who are in a really confident mood, and not score is extremely disappointing.’

Crosby felt there was no argument over who was the better side in the first half, but Vale failed to negate Pompey’s threats after the restart in the manner they had for the first 45 minutes.

He added: ‘I thought we were the better side in the first half, but it’s 0-0 at half-time and we’re reinforcing the message of what we had to without the ball. We had to keep competing with Bishop and Saydee, deal with the keeper’s kicks and handle the second balls.

‘They cross the most balls in the league, so we worked on that and spoke about stopping the ball coming into the box and marking in the box.

‘They test you, they test you physically and mentally. We stood up to that. Connor (Ripley) gets a touch, it goes to their lad and he fires it across - it’s 1-0. Then the referee makes a decision. We lost control of the game and went direct. We wrestled it back at the end, but we have to be more clinical and ruthless.’