We have to up our game this weekend and take it to another level.

We have the firepower in the squad to hurt Port Vale and just need to take our chances because that lifts the pressure off everyone.

Vale manager Mickey Adams was at Priestfield on Tuesday night to watch our Johnstone’s Paint Trophy game and for 75 minutes he may have been worried.

Unfortunately, we let ourselves down in the final 15.

The performance was a mirror-image of Saturday, against AFC Wimbledon.

In between the fantastic football, we let ourselves down for 30 minutes of defending in both games where we conceded five goals.

To give five goals away is not right. Whether that’s being naïve, whether we can’t sniff the danger when we are on the ball going forward, or are not aware of what’s going on, we are working hard to get to the bottom of it.

It doesn’t help with the injuries and by the looks of it, most of our back four from Tuesday could be out for the weekend.

This rule where you have to play six players in the competition is silly. It baffles me and why can’t you play a team you want to play? What’s the point of having a squad if you can’t play these players and give them a run-out, the rules are wrong.

We handed a debut to keeper Paulo Gazzaniga and I’m gutted for him as made a few great saves but ended up conceding three goals.

His distribution of the ball is excellent, hitting the ball just as well with either foot and that’s rare.

It’s an important weapon, because if you get the right run up top and he gets hold of it, you can used it to counter-attack teams.

I am pleased with Stefan Payne, who started his first game this season, because he played well, especially first half. He had bags of energy and running.

Alongside him, Jo Kuffour’s movement was clever in and around the box, he is a livewire.

Unfortunately, we are letting ourselves down because we are doing well in attack up until we get in the box and then we are dragging shots, or hitting the keeper, or he is making good saves.

On the flip side, when they go in our box, they have a shot and it seems to be going in at the minute. It is mystifying how it is happening. We are now out of a competition we wanted to win but it’s not the end of the world and we can fully concentrate on the league now for the next few weeks until the FA Cup comes around.

We picked up a few knocks in the week and it means our squad is getting tested.

The players were in on Wednesday to see what knocks we had and they had a warm down in the pool and a session in the gym. We just need to keep them fresh for Saturday.

A power cut on Tuesday meant the match was delayed slightly but we didn’t allow that to affect us.

We were heading back into the changing rooms when the lights went off and we were wondering if the chairman had a spare £1 to put in the meter.

We sent the lads out a bit early for 10 minutes to get their legs going once the lights returned but it didn’t have an affect on us because we played some of the best football, box-to-box, that we have played all season.

The movement was different class and we passed the ball with a tempo. If Luke Rooney’s effort, after a mazy run, had gone in, it would have been one of the best goals scored for years.