Darren Moore said his Port Vale side had to find a “different way to win” in Tuesday night’s 1-0 success at Harrogate.
The League Two leaders recorded a fourth consecutive victory and extended their unbeaten run to 10 matches in all competitions courtesy of Ruari Paton’s delicious 54th-minute free-kick.
Although the Valiants dominated for a big chunk of the game, they did not have things all their own way and had to withstand a period of late pressure from a spirited Harrogate outfit.
“League Two is about finding different ways to win,” Moore said.
“People speak about playing a certain way but this league doesn’t call for you to be a certain way, this league calls for you to be able to answer a lot of questions and at the moment, we are doing that as a group.
“What we are trying to do here is create a multi-functional team that is able to perform in different ways. It’s not going to be performing in a certain way all the time because in this league, every single week is a different hurdle to overcome.
“Tonight was a different way of winning the game. The team selection, it was an experienced team because coming to Harrogate is difficult – and we got it right. They do put you on the back foot here and you’ve got to be able withstand the kind of pressure that we came under at the end.
“But the experience of the players, it does what it says on the tin and we have come away with another clean sheet.”
Victory leaves Vale two points clear at the summit and Moore was unable to hide his delight after seeing his troops record a third 1-0 win in as many away matches.
“I thought it was a good performance,” he added. “I thought that we were dominant right from the start.
“We knew that they would hold a mid to low block, so we knew that we had to keep the ball moving. Once it got to half-time, we had to keep the tempo in the game and put them under pressure.
“It was an individual bit of brilliance that has broken the deadlock, but up until then I thought that Harrogate defended their box heroically.
“So, I’m really pleased with the three points because it was a difficult game.”
Despite seeing his own side’s three-match unbeaten run ended, Harrogate boss Simon Weaver was far from downbeat after the final whistle.
“It was a brilliant shift from the players,” he said.
“They kept their shape and worked hard and there were moments that, if we had capitalised on, it could have been a different scoreline.”
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