FLU-RIDDEN defender Darren Purse was frustrated by Plymouth Argyle's 1-0 defeat away to Port Vale on Saturday.

Despite being laid low earlier in the week, the experienced Purse played his part in a stubborn rearguard action by the Pilgrims.

And they seemed set to be rewarded for that with a precious point in their fight against relegation from the Football League.

That was until the 86th minute, when Port Vale substitute Tom Pope finally broke their resistance.

And Purse revealed the ball had deflected off his chest, and past goalkeeper Jake Cole, on its way into the net.

Argyle returned to the League Two relegation zone as a result, two points behind Dagenham and Redbridge, who won 3-2 at home to Rotherham United.

Purse told Herald Sport after the game at Vale Park: "I haven't been feeling good for the last few days. I trained on Thursday and didn't feel right.

"I didn't train on Friday and travelled up on my own, but I managed to get through the game.

"I didn't feel as bad as I thought I was going to feel. I think the result is affecting me more than the flu at the minute."

Purse continued: "It would have been a good point. It would have been a good clean sheet as well.

"I don't think we deserved to win the game. We didn't do enough when we had possession of the ball.

"But we defended well enough to come away from here with a point."

Pope, on as a second half substitute, beat Cole with a shot from inside the penalty area, after he was teed up for the shot by Marc Richards.

Purse said: "When it takes a deflection off you and ends up in the bottom corner of your net, it hurts even more.

"As I have gone out to block it, it comes of my chest and I think it just takes it away from Jake a little bit."

Argyle have kept only two clean sheets all season, and Purse admitted that was a statistic that had to improve.

"We have been working on being harder to beat the last few weeks," said the 34-year-old.

"You can see the work we are doing on the training field is coming out in games. Sometimes, you just need that little bit of luck to go with it, and we didn't get that.

"Hopefully, over the next week or two, we can do a little bit more going forward because I think that's where we were lacking."

Argyle had only one shot on target against Port Vale, which was a 30-yard free-kick from midfielder Paul Wotton in the first half.

Other than that, goalkeeper Stuart Tomlinson was not troubled by them.

Purse said: "We spoke about a few things in dressing room after the game. The set pieces weren't very good either.

"Things like that, especially when the game is as tight as it was, we need to brush up on. They are opportunities to score goals."

As an example of that, Purse pointed to Argyle's late equaliser when they drew 1-1 with title-chasing Crawley Town at Home Park the previous Saturday.

Defender Maxime Blanchard got the goal from a corner in the 90th minute.

Purse said: "We proved with Max's goal we can be dangerous from set pieces, but the delivery needs to be right.

"Hopefully, that will come through.

"But to come to a place like Port Vale, and you are disappointed not to pick up a point, I think it shows how far the club has come over the last few weeks."

ARGYLE will have to play a lot better than they did against Port Vale if they are to escape the clutches of relegation this season.

Defensively, the Pilgrims were solid and resolute, which was just as well because Vale dominated the possession. But, in terms of playing constructive football, Argyle were sadly lacking.

On an admittedly poor pitch, the midfield was bypassed all too often by long, hopeful balls which were aimed high towards the strikers.

However, they were easily dealt with by Vale's two centre-backs, John McCombe and Clayton McDonald.

During the pre-match warm-up, McCombe and McDonald had practised their heading, taking turns when the ball was thrown in the air to them.

And it was more of the same for them once the game had got under way.

Argyle strikers Nick Chadwick and Matt Lecointe could not make any impression on the pair of them.

Lecointe, in particular, needed the ball played to his feet, but that rarely happened.

Chadwick was returning to action after a three-match absence because of a hamstring injury and his lack of recent activity showed in his below-par performance.

After an even start to the contest, Port Vale gradually took command and forced Argyle onto the defensive.

With the Pilgrims unable to link up with their two strikers, more and more pressure was applied on them.

That led to the midfield dropping deeper and deeper, allowing Vale plenty of time on the ball.

The centre midfield pairing of Simon Walton and Paul Wotton were almost auxiliary centre-backs.

And wide players Ashley Hemmings and Luke Young had a lot of defending to do as well.

Both stuck to their task well in that respect, with Young putting in a tremendous shift on the right side of midfield.

The 18-year-old must have covered miles chasing up and down the vast Vale Park pitch.

Hemmings was equally diligent, but Argyle would have wanted to see the tricky winger more as an attacker than as a full-back.

Despite Vale's dominance, it looked as though the game would end goalless.

That was until the 86th minute, however, when substitute Tom Pope fired into the bottom corner of the net.

As painful as it was for Argyle to concede so late on, you could not argue the hosts did not deserve their victory.

It was the 50th goal the Pilgrims had conceded in League Two this term, and they have still kept only two clean sheets.

They must improve on that dismal record between now and the end of the season.

On a crisp, clear winter's afternoon in the Potteries, there was not much action in the first half to warm both sets of supporters.

The only chance in the opening quarter-of-an-hour went to Vale.

Midfielder Sean Rigg aimed the ball deep to the far post and striker Ben Williamson headed the ball back across goal, and narrowly wide.

Argyle were awarded a free-kick 30 yards out, and in a central position, in the 19th minute after Young's strong run was ended by a foul on him.

Wotton, renowned for his powerful shooting, lined up to take it but did not make a clean contact on the ball.

Nevertheless, Stuart Tomlinson could not hold onto it at the first attempt, and had to dive on top of the loose ball before Argyle's Maxime Blanchard could get there.

It was a shaky moment for Tomlinson, and the Pilgrims would have wanted to exploit that.

But they could not come up with another shot for the rest of the match as the Vale keeper had an otherwise uneventful match.

Williamson had another good chance for the hosts in the 20th minute after a cross from left-back Doug Loft.

The Vale striker swept the ball towards goal from close range, only for Argyle keeper Jake Cole to block it with his legs.

Rigg shot into the side netting later in the first half as Vale kept up their pressure but struggled to prise open the Pilgrims defence.

It was more of the same after the break, with striker Marc Richards having a header saved by Cole from a good left-wing cross by Rob Taylor.

Moments later, a low shot from Rigg deflected narrowly wide for a corner – one of 13 Vale had during the game.

Chadwick was replaced in the 59th minute by Ladjie Soukouna and he played behind Lecointe, now the Pilgrims' lone out-and-out striker.

It was a thankless task for the 17-year-old, against two such strong defenders as McCombe and McDonald.

Lecointe was taken off in the 69th minute, with Craig Sutherland sent on to lead the attack in the last game of his loan spell from Blackpool.

Sutherland did not see much of the ball as Vale continued to take the game to Argyle.

Cole made a smart save, low to his right, after Rigg was allowed the time and space to turn inside the penalty area and get a shot away.

McDonald stabbed the ball wide after the ball was played into the box by Rigg.

And there was more frustration for Vale when Richards, their 10-goal top scorer, headed over the bar after a cross from substitute Louis Dodds on 79 minutes.

As time ticked away, it looked as though Argyle's resilience would get its reward.

But, after scoring late goals in their previous two games, the Pilgrims were on the opposite end of it this time.

Rigg crossed the ball into the penalty area and Richards set up Pope for a shot.

His shot took a slight deflection off Argyle defender Darren Purse and the ball beat Cole and nestled in the net.

Joe Lennox was thrown on as a 90th minute substitute for Young as the Pilgrims went in search of an equaliser, but Vale saw out time with no alarms.

It was arguably Argyle's poorest performance, in terms of the football they played, since Carl Fletcher took over as manager from Peter Reid in September.

Argyle have won only two of their 15 away league games this season and that is putting pressure on them to pick up points at Home Park.

And the Pilgrims will face a stern test this coming Saturday when they host Paul Sturrock's title-chasing Southend United.

CARL FLETCHER'S VIEW

CARL FLETCHER gave an insight into the difficulties of being a manager after Argyle's 1-0 defeat at Port Vale on Saturday.

The 31-year-old admitted 'non-stop putting fires out' took up a lot of his time.

His pre-match preparations were hampered by striker Warren Feeney failing a fitness test on a calf injury.

Centre-back Darren Purse had also been a doubt for the fixture because of flu.

In the end, Purse did take up his place in the Pilgrims' defence, but Feeney's absence was a blow for Fletcher.

Striker Nick Chadwick returned to action as the replacement for Feeney, after being sidelined for three games by a hamstring injury.

But the 29-year-old seemed some way short of full fitness, and made way for Ladjie Soukouna in the 59th minute.

Fletcher said: "He (Chadwick) had been out for four weeks, so it was always going to be tough for him on a difficult pitch.

"You can only play with the cards you are dealt. It's disappointing when things change around at the last minute.

"But that's what I have found out. You are kind of non-stop putting fires out. As soon as you think you have got them all out, there are about 10 more."

Argyle's newly-appointed director of football John Deehan, who has been brought in as a 'mentor' to Fletcher, was at Vale Park.

And he saw the Pilgrims beaten by an 86th minute goal from substitute Tom Pope.

It was Argyle's 10th defeat in 15 away games in League Two this season, and they dropped back into the relegation zone as a consequence.

Dagenham and Redbridge moved above them after a 3-2 home win against Rotherham United.

Argyle had only one shot target all afternoon – a free-kick from midfielder Paul Wotton in the first half.

That apart, the visitors were totally ineffective as an attacking force, but they defended solidly throughout.

It looked as though Argyle would take away a hard-earned point from their trip to the Potteries until Pope struck late on.

Fletcher said: "We didn't play that great, but we dug in and worked hard.

"Defensively we looked fairly comfortable. In possession we could have been better, but I thought it was going to peter out to a 0-0 draw.

"It was tough. Feeney dropped out so Chaddy had to play, having been out for four weeks, and Pursey had flu.

"The lads gave me everything, and it's just disappointing we didn't see the game out."

Despite all the possession Port Vale had, and the 13 corners they forced during the game, Argyle gave good protection to goalkeeper Jake Cole.

Fletcher said: "If you don't play well, you try to be hard to beat. We looked fairly comfortable.

"In any game you play, you have to defend when balls come in the box and do the right things, and on a difficult pitch we did that.

"We stuck to our task, but their lad (Pope) came up with a little bit of quality towards the end."

Fletcher admitted he was disappointed with the lack of attacking threat from Argyle, who had scored five goals in their previous three games.

He said: "Sometimes you are going to have loads of possessions in games, sometimes you aren't.

"Here, we didn't, and we dug in and did our defensive duties, but there are always areas you can improve on, whether you win or lose."

Purse played against Port Vale despite sitting out training on Friday because of illness.

Fletcher said: "Pursey travelled up on his own and had his own room. He was kind of out for the count on Friday, but he has got through it.

"When winter comes, you always have to be careful of flu going around.

"It's no different from wherever you are. You just have to deal with it and kind of roll with the punches."

He added: "We would have taken a draw away from home at a tough place like Port Vale.

"Obviously, every game we go into we want to win, and sometimes you can go out there and things click and you don't have too much of a problem.

"But other times you have to grind things out, and that's what we had to do.

"We realised that as the game went on, and it was just unfortunate we didn't see it through."