Fleetwood Town 0-0 Port Vale

Caretaker boss Michael Brown took charge of Port Vale when Bruno Ribeiro resigned in December

Port Vale were relegated to League Two despite drawing their final game of the season at Fleetwood Town, who had to settle for a play-off spot.

Needing to win and hope at least one other result went their way, Vale sat back for the first hour before a desperate finale, as it emerged they needed just one late goal to survive.

Anthony de Freitas went close for the visitors late on but fired just over.

And Vale's four-year stay in League One ended as they failed to find a winner.

Fleetwood, who had started the day with a slight chance of earning automatic promotion, slipped to fourth and will now play fifth-placed Bradford in the play-offs, as Scunthorpe won to finish third.

The Cod Army's hopes of pipping Bolton to second spot were dashed as Wanderers took control of their own game and defeated Peterborough, which appeared to give Vale hope at the other end of the table.

Michael Brown's side kicked off one point below 20th-placed Gillingham and two below 19th-placed Bury - who both failed to win.

A late winning goal for Vale would have kept them up, but despite a late rally, they managed just two shots on target.

Fleetwood went closest to scoring as both teams pushed for victory in the closing stages and Ashley Eastham had the ball in the net, only for his effort to be ruled out for offside.

Chris Eagles had arguably Vale's best chance, but his deflected, close-range effort was saved with around 15 minutes remaining.

Where did it go wrong for Vale?

Vale fans will lament a run of five straight defeats, without scoring a single goal, earlier in April, which significantly contributed to their relegation.

A surprise win at mid-table Walsall on Tuesday gave the Valiants a stay of execution until the final day, but a lack of goals in 2017 has ultimately been the downfall for Brown's side.

Vale managed just 18 league goals following the turn of the year and no individual Vale player netted 10 league goals all season.

Alex Jones finished the campaign as top scorer at Vale with nine league goals, despite his loan spell from Birmingham ending in January when he signed for Bradford City.

Former manager Bruno Ribeiro resigned as Vale boss on Boxing Day, saying the "project" was not working, and Brown was placed in caretaker charge but he was unable to arrest their slide during his temporary tenure.

Port Vale captain Ben Purkiss told BBC Radio Stoke:

"I don't think words can really sum up how we feel. That's the quietest I've ever known the dressing room after the game.

"It wasn't today that cost us, it's been throughout the whole season.

"You reflect on the day, we had opportunities. The game was so open in that second half, we were pushing forward, we had chances, they had chances.

"I actually thought our chances were probably the better of the chances in the game and we just couldn't get the goal."