Sam Tickle hailed by Port Vale boss after saving Wigan Athletic's bacon

Wigan's Martial Godo came closest to breaking the deadlock, only to fire against a post in the second half.

At the other end, Wigan were indebted to England Under-21 goalkeeper Sam Tickle for pulling off, in the words of Moore, 'an outstanding double save' to deny James Plant and Baylee Dipepa.

The point lifts Vale out of the relegation zone, and Moore says that will give them a 'psychological boost' for their last five games of the campaign.

"It's a good day for us at Port Vale, getting the clean sheet and how valuable that point is in terms of the psychological boost of getting out of that bottom four," he said.

"While we'll take that today, we know the work isn't nearly finished, it's only given us a platform.

"And we have to continue to perform, keep that togetherness, and keep that unity going forward.”

Tickle had already saved Latics in the first half when ex-Wigan man Gavin Massey looked a likely scorer, only for the goalkeeper to race off his line and get in a fine block.

But even that was nothing compared to his late heroics, when he managed to parry out a Plant strike that took a huge deflection, and then somehow get to the rebound from Dipepa.

"As a group we certainly feel we could and should have taken maximum points, but their goalkeeper has pulled off an outstanding double save,” added Moore.

"The first one, he was going the other way, and then he gets up and makes another save.

"Credit to him for earning them a point, but I just thought both teams were at it, both teams were pressing on, and it was a good footballing match.

"We pressed them high up the pitch, and I liked the way we played on them, and forced errors, which we should have capitalised more on.

"Overall it was a solid performance, and you're always happy with a clean sheet away from home."