'We have to start learning from defeats' - Garrity

Port Vale captain Ben Garrity says the time for excuses is over after his side slipped to the bottom of League One with defeat by fellow strugglers Plymouth.

A run of three straight victories took the Valiants up to 16th at the end of September, but they have since failed to win any of their past seven league games.

A second-half winner from former Valiants striker Lorent Tolaj lifted Plymouth off the bottom as Vale slumped to a fourth league defeat in their past five matches.

"We've got to put our finger on it and start learning from these defeats," Garrity told BBC Radio Stoke.

"We can't keep accepting them and saying the same thing that we're doing well in spells of games, because the game's 98-100 minutes."

While the 28-year-old midfielder was frustrated at conceding a "soft" goal, he is equally concerned about Vale's barren run in front of goal.

Their tally of 11 goals from 17 matches is the lowest return in League One, with only Devante Cole (4) and Ryan Croasdale (2) scoring more than a single goal.

They have gone five league games without a goal - since a 1-1 draw with AFC Wimbledon on 11 October - and have found the net just once in their past seven league fixtures.

"Their goal in the second half, it takes what, 20, 30 seconds to score?," he said.

"That's how easy it is to score a goal. It takes them 20, 30 seconds. Why can't we go and do that?"

He added: "We can't give teams at this level chances, but also when we have ours, we have to take them as a whole team.

"That's up front, midfield, defenders, everyone. We need to start taking them and then keep the ball out of our net."

Garrity knows they must quickly find their scoring touch and start picking up results, with challenging matches against top-three sides Lincoln and Bradford - either side of cup games against Barnsley and Bristol Rovers - up next.

"I'm captain and I'll take as much blame as people want to put on me," said Garrity. "I don't care, if I can take a lot of the brunt, I will.

"There's a lot of football to be played and we've been in a worse position.

"But, again, I can't keep saying this, not every week, because it'll just slowly start getting worse and worse, and again [on Saturday] it was bad."