Though no honours were won on the pitch, Port Vale was named as Community Club of the Year at the 2021 EFL Awards for their work helping the local area during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, they lost six matches in November, causing them to exit the FA Cup in the first round to non-League King's Lynn Town and drop firmly into mid-table in the league.

Pressure built over the Christmas period as Vale ended the year 16th in the table, and Askey left the club on 4 January, two days after a 4–0 defeat to Mansfield Town.

Danny Pugh spent the rest of the month as caretaker manager, overseeing comprehensive victories over Grimsby Town and Southend United as well as an exit from the EFL Trophy and two defeats in games he was unable to attend due to him testing positive for COVID-19.

[22] With right-back James Gibbons sidelined with a long-term injury, Askey brought in Leicester City full-back Mitch Clark for his third loan spell at the club.

[24] They got back to winning ways at home to Paul Scholes's Salford City; Scott Brown saved a penalty and Cristian Montaño went on to score the game's only goal with four minutes left to play.

[41] The new year began with a 4–0 defeat at Mansfield Town thanks to a Jordan Bowery hat-trick and Legge being sent off for the second time of the season; speaking in his post-match interview, Askey alluded to "a lot of strange happenings going", saying that "it’s not a level playing field at the moment".

[43] Pugh selected a 4–4–2 formation for first game in charge, a 3–0 home win over Grimsby Town that proved to be a stark contrast to their defeat seven days previously.

[46] In order to comply with EFL squad limit rules the club deregistered Harry McKirdy and Theo Robinson so as to make room for the two new signings.

[48] However, two days later, Pugh had to start self-isolation after testing positive for COVID-19; his assistants – Frank Sinclair, Billy Paynter and Anthony Griffith took over first-team duties in his absence.

[50] The bad run continued at Scunthorpe, as poor defending allowed a brace from Ryan Loft to condemn Vale to a 2–0 loss;[51] stand-in manager Frank Sinclair said that "it wasn’t good enough, especially the first half".

[64] Vale dominated at home to Oldham Athletic on 9 March, but failed to convert any of their chances as the game ended 0–0, with Clarke bemoaning his side's lack of ruthlessness and musing that "we led the horse to a lot of water there didn't we?".

[65] After the game Clarke announced that experienced coach Andy Crosby had been added to the staff, whilst there would be a ban on players speaking to the media until the end of the campaign.

[66][67] However, the losing run continued as Bolton Wanderers came away from Vale Park with a 1–0 win, after which Clarke encouraged players who were unwilling to fight for the club to tell him so as "we look them in the eye sometimes and just get the feeling they are not really fancying this".

[71] Following the match it was confirmed that Zak Mills missed the rest of the season due to injury, and the club gained special dispensation from the EFL to re-register Harry McKirdy to the 22-man squad in his place.

[74] A 1–0 home victory over play-off hopefuls Morecambe extended the winning run to six games; the match was halted for 30 minutes in the first half due to heavy snowfall.

[75] On 13 April, Manny Oyeleke, whose contract was due to expire in the summer, was allowed to leave the club to join National League play-off chasing Chesterfield.

[78] A 2–1 win over Bradford City kept the unbeaten run going, though Clayton Donaldson's consolation goal brought Vale's five match clean sheet streak to an end.

[79] Vale's nine-game unbeaten came to an end with a 1–0 defeat at already-relegated Grimsby Town after Matt Green capitalised on an under-hit back-pass from Joyce; Montaño was sent off late in the game after receiving a second yellow card for dissent.

[80] The season came to an end with a 3–0 defeat to Mansfield Town as a number of changes were made to the starting eleven, after which Clarke commented that "I can’t wait to get rid of the deadwood if I am honest".

[81] Two days later, Clarke released all 15 out of contract players: Brisley, Brown, Ryan Campbell-Gordon, Adam Crookes, Cullen, Fitzpatrick, Guthrie, Joyce, McKirdy, Mills, Montaño, Pope, Scott, Daniel Trickett-Smith and Visser.

[83] The season began with no fans allowed into any grounds across the English Football League due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in England, with initial plans to see crowds return to stadiums in October.

[89] Port Vale were drawn at home to King's Lynn Town (National League) in the first round of the FA Cup, the first-ever meeting between the two clubs.