Bradford manager Phil Parkinson said his players must not feel sorry for themselves as they recover from Saturday's defeat.
The Bantams fell victim to a classic smash-and-grab raid by Port Vale at Valley Parade, where Parkinson's in-form side did everything but score before losing out to a solitary Tom Pope goal against the run of play.
"We were excellent and on another day could have come out as comfortable winners," Parkinson told Press Association Sport.
"Credit to Micky Adams' defence because they defended heroically at times and I'm sure he'll be pleased with that.
"But we couldn't ask much more from the lads after the (Capital One) Cup exploits on the Tuesday, to go again and play in the manner they did was excellent and all that was missing was that goal early in the game.
"We would have gone on to score more, but it's important we go into the next game at Rochdale not feeling sorry for ourselves and hard done to. We've got to go there with an additional edge to get back to winning ways."
