Port Vale lack leaders, says caretaker boss Mark Grew

Port Vale have won one of their seven matches under Mark Grew

Caretaker manager Mark Grew has said a lack of leadership within the squad could cost Port Vale a play-off place.

Vale are currently three points behind seventh-placed Stevenage, the team they play on Monday, after a 2-1 home defeat by bottom club Stockport on Saturday.

Grew told BBC Radio Stoke: "You've got to have characters and we don't have enough characters or leaders.

"They've not let me down, they've let the club down. Some people have never got promoted, some of them never will."

The former Vale goalkeeper continued: "The teams that I've been involved with, there have been leaders.

"Players like Robbie Earle, Bob Hazell, Phil Sproson, you can go through them, they were leaders and they wanted to win.

"Sometimes I wonder whether they [the current squad] have got that in them."

Vale were in the automatic promotion places in League Two for much of the early part of the season but have won just six of their 23 league matches since the departure of manager Micky Adams to Sheffield United.

They dropped out of the play-off places for the first time during Jim Gannon's ill-fated spell in charge at Vale Park and have won once in seven games under caretaker boss Grew.

However, defeats for Gillingham and Stevenage during the Easter weekend have left the door open for Vale to sneak into the top seven with a good late run of form.

"If they want it, they can prove they can compete," said Grew. "But they also showed just how poor they can be in the first half [against Stockport]."