It wasn't a bad performance, but at the same time it wasn't good either.
Overall it was just very flat and effortless, Notts was setup to defend. The plan was to hoof under pressure, hoof when in possession and hoof just for good measure. Neal Ardley failed to instruct the players that the game was important to win, he didn't even see that Port Vale was there for the taking IF performances levels lifted. It was like a club wanting to settle for a point because that outcome was good enough. In the case for Notts it simply wasn't.
The lack of efforts on goals stems from the boring tactics.