PORT Vale manager Darrell Clarke said he was "hurting" with the travelling fans, after twice surrendering a lead and losing to Latics.

An away following of 1,973 made up the biggest Boundary Park attendance of the season.

There were wild celebrations from them when David Worrall fired them into a 20th minute lead, and again when James Gibbons made it 2-1 right in front of the away end seven minutes into the second half, after Davis Keillor-Dunn had made it 1-1 in the first

Sam Hart stunned them with a second equaliser, before the defender's stoppage time shot was headed into his own net by Aaron Martin.

Clarke said: “First of all, I would like to thank the fans who have travelled in their numbers and were outstanding all game, I am hurting for them to be honest with you.

“We have dominated the game of football but we haven’t defended our box.

“We haven’t been clinical enough to maybe get the third and fourth goal and then we haven’t defended our box the minimal times it has actually gone in the box.

“We are a very frustrated and disappointed outfit today. Certainly disappointed for our travelling fans. I thought we deserved the three points but if you don’t defend your box at crucial times that’s what can happen, and we have to get better than that.

"We have to get better at it, there are no scapegoats."

Clarke added: “The ball has gone in our box very little, we have dominated the ball, dominated possession and dominated opportunities but we haven’t defended the three or four times it has gone in our box.

“We will look at it, analyse it and get better at it, it’s as simple as that.”