'I feel we're moving forward' - Valiants boss Brady

Port Vale boss Jon Brady said a tactical change to suit his players' strengths, rather than a football philosophy, is helping to improve results.

Saturday's 1-1 draw at home to Luton Town extended the basement side's unbeaten run to three matches in League One.

And having lost three of his first five league games after taking over from Darren Moore in January, Brady has since overseen one defeat in their past five outings.

"What you've seen in the last three to four games is players building a connection and getting into a rhythm, and that's important," he told BBC Radio Stoke.

"It takes time to get your messages on board, and we've changed to a shape that probably more suits the characteristics of the group and not the way that we want to play.

"I'd rather work on the characteristics of the group, and as you can see, two up top again was dangerous. All my strikers put in a shift and were a threat."

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The Australian accepted that his side need to start converting draws into wins if they are to pull off a dramatic escape from the drop zone.

They have won just six of their 32 league matches this season and are seven points adrift at the bottom - and 10 points from safety - but with games in hand on all seven of the teams directly above them.

Brady said his side can take confidence from Saturday's performance against a club that were playing Premier League football just two seasons ago.

"I feel we're moving forward," he said. "We've got a lot of big challenges ahead if you really look at who we've got. We've got a lot of big teams in the league.

"That's a big team (Luton) in the league today, they're a top-two budget in the league and expected to be right up there.

"For whatever reason, it's not working for them, but we showed we were at the same level or maybe a slight nudge ahead today, so that's important and that will build belief for the boys."

Vale host Championship side Bristol City for a rearranged fourth-round FA Cup tie on Tuesday (19:45 GMT) before returning to league action away to mid-table Peterborough United on Saturday (15:00 GMT).