A fifty second minute strike from Port Vale's Leon Constantine was enough to condemn Yeovil Town to their third defeat on the trot at Vale Park.

The day had started badly for Yeovil when Colin Miles was struck down with a case of food poisoning which kept him, not only off the team sheet, but also the team bus, as a precaution to protect the rest of the squad from some possible bug.

Manager Steve Thompson was forced to shuffle his pack with Kevin Amankwaah moving to central defence and Andy Lindegaard coming in at right back.

Thompson also brought back keeper Chris Weale and Kevin Gall who had scored five goals in two reserve fixtures to earn a recall.

Transfer window signing Anthony Barry also started his first Yeovil Town match in the midfield.

The first half was a pretty frantic affair with Port Vale having more of the possession but Yeovil were certainly the team creating the chances.

Amankwaah was forced into an early saving tackle to deny Lowndes and then Yeovil should have gone in front.

Barry played Kevin Gall in down the right and his run and cross was met by David Poole but somehow Goodlad pulled of a miraculous save to keep the ball out.

Poole was having a confident start, as was Barry, but it was Phil Jevons who had the next chance trying to find Gall but the ball was cleared behind for a corner.

Next it was Weale in action pushing Dinnings shot around the post. Vale were beginning to get on top but the Yeovil defence, with Amankwaah and Lockwood supreme in the middle, were repelling all borders although Lockwood breathed a sigh of relief when Constantine got ahead of him only to blaze over when it was easier to score.

Yeovil were never out of it though and Poole brought another fine save from Goodlad as half time approached.

Half Time: Port Vale 0 Yeovil Town 0

Vale made changes with Sonner and Smith coming on for Dinning and Innes and the changes seemed to work as Constantine somehow managed to recover quicker from a Lockwood challenge and got his toe to the ball. Before Weale could react the ball rolled into the net to the home side the lead.

It was blow to Yeovil but they reacted better from the set back and for the rest of the game were by far the more dominant side.

Steve Thomspon brought on Harrold for Paul Terry and Yeovil started to build up the pressure with a series of corners although none of them brought the breakthrough Yeovil so desperately needed.

With 16 minutes to go Thompson brought on Davies and Webb for Poole and Gall and Webb's arrival certainly livened things up at the front as Vale began to panic as they desperately tried to hang on to their advantage.

As the game entered its final stages Yeovil had two glorious chances to square the match but yet again a great goalkeeping display was to break The Glover's hearts.

First Nathan Jones' run saw him through to see the white's of Goodlad's eyes but his powerful shot brought a point blank save from the keeper as the ball was pushed around the post.

From the resulting corner Adam Lockwood watched in agony as his header was cleared off the line by Abbey.

Even with three minutes stoppage time Yeovil couldn't make the breakthrough in a match they were extremely unlucky to lose.

But there will be no time to worry about it as MK Dons arrive at Huish Park on Tuesday for a match that takes on even more significance.

Final Score: Port Vale 1 Yeovil Town 0