But he was much happier after his young guns bounced back to pick up their first points of the season.
Following Tuesday's 4-1 defeat, Slade headed for Old Trafford and returned with loan signing Richie Jones, who has made five first-team appearances for Manchester United, all in cup games.
The young midfielder played an important role in a Yeovil diamond formation in midfield and laid on the vital goal. It came in the 17th minute when Marcus Stewart put Jones clear on the right and a pinpoint cross was swept in by ex-Rotherham man Justin Cochrane, who was also making his debut.
Vale tried to hit back and should have equalised just before half-time when a defensive slip left Danny Whitaker in the clear. He should have scored but keeper Steve Mildenhall saved with his legs.
Although Port Vale had most of the attacking play in the early stages of the second-half, there was not much penetration and when Mildenhall made another great save from Keith Lowe in the 74th minute. They realised it was not going to be their day.
Yeovil finished the match stronger with another of their youngsters, Darryl Knights, coming on as substitute and putting two efforts just wide of a post.
The Man-of-the-Match Award went to 19-year-old right-back Craig Alcock, who was making his first start and the wholehearted Yeovil performance gave Slade a few headaches of the nice sort.
The experienced Nathan Jones and skipper Terry Skiverton, who are among the injured, know that they may need to fight to get their places back.