Frustrated Port Vale manager Jon Brady says keeping the club in League One was always going to be "a hell of a task" and is concerned current performances are showing they are "not quite good enough for the level".
Vale slipped to a fourth defeat in six league games, since Brady replaced Darren Moore as boss in early January at Stevenage on Tuesday, to fall further adrift of safety at the bottom of the table.
Although now 12 points away from Brady's old club Northampton Town, one point outside the relegation zone, Vale do have three games in hand on the Cobblers, who they play on 24 February.
"We were bottom of the league when we came in by quite a way and it's a hell of a task [staying up] because, at the moment, considering results, and where we're at, we're showing we're not quite good enough for the level," Brady said.
"We've got to keep working to try to find a way.
"The players are giving everything they've got, but it's just not good enough at the moment and, for whatever reason, we're not getting results.
"Stevenage didn't out-play us they won the battles on set-pieces."
- 'Nowhere near good enough' - Brady on Trophy exit
- Vale will continue to 'break down the mountain'
- Striker Gray back in England with Port Vale
- Vale can still achieve 'amazing things' - Stockley
'We're not standing up to the task'
Despite Jordan Stockley's 10th-minute opener at The Lamex Stadium, Vale could not hold on as the home side scored twice in the space of five minutes from two set-pieces that the Valiants failed to clear.
Vale thought they had equalised before the break through Andre Gray only for the effort to be ruled out for an earlier infringement - a decision Brady told BBC Radio Stoke "for the life of me I don't understand it".
"It's frustrating," he added. "It's the desire to win your own battles. You've got to stand up to the task in both boxes," Brady said.
"Unfortunately we're not standing up to the task - you go 1-0 up here you've got to make sure you close them out, at least until half-time when you reset. It's almost too easy for them.
"It's nothing to do with tactics. It's about being resilient.
"Just for two moments we're not quite right and it's such a shame because otherwise you come away with a point.
"We have to dust ourselves down come back next game and try to get a result. Simple as that."
Vale take on Reading next at Vale Park on Saturday [15:00 GMT].