Reds boss John Coleman admitted he felt ‘humiliated’ at half-time as his side trailed Port Vale 4-0.

It’s a long time since the Reds have been on the end of such a beating – in fact you have to look back to 2007/08 season when the Reds suffered a 5-0 loss at MK Dons and an 8-2 defeat at Peterborough – out of both games by half-time.

They did suffer a 5-1 loss at Lincoln in 2008 but the five goals were conceded in the final 22 minutes with keeper Kenny Arthur struggling with a kidney injury.

Since those early League Two years, Stanley have established themselves in the division and have handed out a few pastings of their own – most notably the 7-4 victory over Gillingham in 2010.

But Saturday’s game at Vale Park was a return to those bad old days where every time Micky Adams’ side went forward, the 105 travelling fans feared another goal.

It was hard to take as Vale seemed to score at will and it could have been a lot worse but for some slack shooting after the break and keeper Sean Murdoch tipping a couple away.

And it was a shame that Peter Murphy’s late tap-in – his first league goal after five years with the Reds – went without much recognition after such a sorry show.

The Stanley defence, which had played so well against Bradford in midweek, fell apart and Coleman was at a loss to explain the sudden collapse.

"What you couldn’t equate is that you have got a keeper and a back four who were magnificent on Tuesday and it’s the same defence on Saturday," said a bemused Coleman.

"I am so disappointed. There was not much in the game until they scored after 18 minutes.

"But after they scored, we seemed to throw the towel in which is very upsetting, frustrating and disappointing – call it what you like but the one thing that is evident is that it is unacceptable.

"They scored with their first four attempts on goal which is great economy by them but the goals we conceded were diabolical.

"People were not picking their players up and you could have driven a bus down the middle of our defence for the first one.

"Then the second one was a free kick which their lad has hit with his right foot to the keeper’s side of the goal and that should never go in,

"For the third one their lad has got all the time in the world to cross the ball and their striker comes in at far post

"Then, for the fourth, they get a throw-in down the right, the lad gets a cross in and the scorer gets across our player and scores.

"They are terrible goals to concede but, after we conceded the first goal, no one was at the races, we were poor and no one acquitted themselves well and we got what we deserved.

"Historically, we used to have a problem where one goal could quite easily be two within five mintues.

"I thought we had eradicated that but it seems to have come back this season and we have got to snap out of that quite quickly."

There wasn’t a sign of what was to come with new loan striker Louis Moult, signed from Potteries rivals Stoke and so not given the best of welcomes by the majority crowd at Vale Park, had a go from the edge of the area but it was straight at Valiants’ keeper Stuart Tomlinson.

Moult then showed vision with a great chip forward for Charlie Barnett to run onto but the defender just got there first.

Then the collapse started on 18 minutes.

Gary Roberts – not the Reds’ former player – played a straight ball to Sean Rigg unmarked on the edge of the area and he had all the time in the world to turn and pick his spot, with the Reds defence nowhere.

Four minutes later and Luke Joyce challenged Rigg on the edge of the area and Roberts fired the resulting free kick under the wall into bottom of Murdoch’s net. At 2-0 the Reds were stunned.

Vale were finding time and space to pass the ball around and number three came on 37 minutes when Adam Yates had plenty of time to cross from the right. Tom Pope leapt at the far post and in it went.

Stanley defender Sean Hessey did try his luck from the edge of area with Tomlinson grabbing the ball at the second attempt but it was a minor respite as number four followed two minutes before the break.

A Pope ball from the right was not cleared and the inrushing Rigg got on the right side of the Reds’ defence and slid home.

Coleman admitted he told the Reds it wasn’t good enough at half-time but, four minutes into the break, it seemed little had changed when Vale’s Anthony Griffiths was clean though but somehow he could only find the side netting.

It did then get a little better for Stanley but it could be that was because Port Vale knew the game was over.

Moult tried a chip inside the area but couldn’t find the target while Vale’s Pope attempted a lob from outside the area at the other end that looked like number five but Murdoch got his finger-tips to it.

There was a late rally, with Murphy hitting the top of the crossbar with a cross and then, 10 minutes from time, Craig Lindfield’s corner was flicked on at the near post and Murphy pounced to stab home the consolation. But it almost went unnoticed.

"We weren’t good enough and we told them at half-time but I don’t think we were good enough in the second half either," said Coleman.

"The score flattered us to be honest, as they seemed to coast for the last half an hour.

"We continually made mistakes after the break and, when we have got a lot of players not playing well, you generally struggle in games.

"It was humiliating to go 4-0 down at half-time and I feel sorry for the fans."

But Coleman has got his sides to bounce back from those heavy defeats in the early days – and he will be determined to make sure that this was just a one-off.