Port Vale

Ghost_of_Max

Ghost_of_Max

Well-known member
Funny little club aren't they. Just looked at their honours - hardly gets the heart pumping!

  • Champions: 1929–30, 1953–54.
  • 2nd place promotion: 1993–94.
  • Play-off winners: 1988–89.
 
I see Ben Garrity scored the winner for them against Reading at the weekend.
We rescued him from Non- League and he was on our books until a couple of seasons ago.
 
GrahamwantshisOates said:
Trevor Sinclair scored a wonder goal only for the referee to have already blown his whistle for a free kick to us!
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Aye, my dad was still jumping up and down going 'did you see that, look at that, maginificent, what a player' etc about thirty seconds after it had been disallowed and about three people tried to tell him it was disallowed and he just hugged them. I was 14 or 15 so I nearly died with shame at his idiocy.

Now, that would so be me.
 
NewburyOne said:
I remember that team from 93-94, Robin van der lan et al. They took over Bloomfield Road on the last day if memory serves me right, battered us 3-0 and narrowly lost out on the title.
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It was 2-4. Van der Laan scored early doors from distance. Eyres volley & a Bamber master goal put us 2-1 at the break. They scored 2 in a minute in the second half to go 3-2 up (& move into 2nd place) but Bolton scored late on (v Nobbers) to deny Port Vale automatic promotion.
Trevor Sinclair scored a goal of season contender but chalked off as ref didn’t play advantage. Vale scored with the last kick to win 2-4. They had the half of the kop & the whole of the east.
 
I think they have been considered a 'sleeping giant' at times in the past. Biggish ground - once aspiring to be 'Wembley of the North' . Stoke's relative success in recent years has not helped. I would have expected them to bring 2500 plus had the game been on a Saturday.

Bloke I used to work for went to see Blackpool get knocked out of the FA Cup in 1954 at Vale Park in front of 40-50k fans. it rained heavily throughout and he lost his shoes in the mud - stood on the terracing.
 
Jakeyr said:
Looks like they have sold 1850 tickets for Tues night so could be a decent night under the lights as I'm not sure if we won a single midweek game last season
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We beat QPR at home 6-1 back in March, other than that can't think of too many others.
 
The Shanahans' ownership of PV has strong echoes of SS & us.

Bought the club from a hated owner (Norman Smurthwaite) and have since endeavoured to reunite a fractured fanbase.
Local folk who don't just want footballing success, but to use the club's profile to benefit the community (IIRC Carol Shanahan has been honoured for her community work).

Another club that's been through the mill, but is now in good hands 👍
 
NewburyOne said:
I remember that team from 93-94, Robin van der lan et al. They took over Bloomfield Road on the last day if memory serves me right, battered us 3-0 and narrowly lost out on the title.
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I was at the game as a kid. Lost 4-2. They were perceived as a bigger club back then so times have changed since then.

Good to see Vale back in League One. Can't be easy competing against Stoke.
 
Toastrack said:
The Shanahans' ownership of PV has strong echoes of SS & us.

Bought the club from a hated owner (Norman Smurthwaite) and have since endeavoured to reunite a fractured fanbase.
Local folk who don't just want footballing success, but to use the club's profile to benefit the community (IIRC Carol Shanahan has been honoured for her community work).

Another club that's been through the mill, but is now in good hands 👍
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Didn't know about them, but just read an article about Carol Shanahan

"The way we viewed it...yes we have paid far too much but you look at it as a business deal. So, as a business person if you were going to assess it, you would say why on earth have you done that! But that isn't how we viewed it. We really viewed it as almost a loved one was held hostage and someone had to pay the ransom. The club would have gone into administration, it would have folded."

Class.
 
A guy I was with at College in the late 60s was a fervent Vale fan.

At every opportunity he'd talk about his great hero - Roy Sproson.

Sproson was a local boy, who spent all his time at Vale - 760 appearances in 23 years, followed by 5 years as a manager. There'a statue of him outside Vale Park.

Vale's "Jimmy". Can you imagine that these days?
 
Mcewans Mullet said:
Did them away 6-1 once in the 80s
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Think we beat someone else the week before or after by a similar score with Paul Stewart getting 5 goals in the two games resulting in a move to Man City? No doubt someone on here will confirm or deny my recollections....!
 
Jakeyr said:
Looks like they have sold 1850 tickets for Tues night so could be a decent night under the lights as I'm not sure if we won a single midweek game last season
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Great turnout that is . Kids holiday being on will be helping I assume
 
Ollygon said:
A guy I was with at College in the late 60s was a fervent Vale fan.

At every opportunity he'd talk about his great hero - Roy Sproson.

Sproson was a local boy, who spent all his time at Vale - 760 appearances in 23 years, followed by 5 years as a manager. There'a statue of him outside Vale Park.

Vale's "Jimmy". Can you imagine that these days?
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I love those players - absolute heroes that you've never heard of. Legends that don't transcend the boundaries of their own support.
 
tango94 said:
I see Ben Garrity scored the winner for them against Reading at the weekend.
We rescued him from Non- League and he was on our books until a couple of seasons ago.
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They absolutely love him at Vale and think we were mad to let him go
 
Just looked at their stats from the first two games, they had 17 shots against Reading on Saturday (we had 4), and even in the drubbing at Barnsley they had 14. Looks like they shoot on sight, probably from anywhere. 1 goal from 31 attempts isn't a great return, but they probably think that one day they'll get a hatfull.
 
clappers said:
They absolutely love him at Vale and think we were mad to let him go
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It's interesting when you look at Norburn's career. Load say 'Why would you sign player x from 'that level' but he's come good late in his career judging by where he's been at. Garrity could be similar.

I hate the idea that players are 'League 1 players' or 'non league players' and that's it - sometimes they're at the wrong level or sometimes they only figure out their game later or whatever.

He never did owt for us, but he only played a tiny handful of games so it's hard to say innit.
 
NewburyOne said:
I remember that team from 93-94, Robin van der lan et al. They took over Bloomfield Road on the last day if memory serves me right, battered us 3-0 and narrowly lost out on the title.
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Speaking of battered that day. Ask Mosser about the three Vale fans not lasting too long in the West Paddock 😜
 
tangerinespud said:
It was 2-4. Van der Laan scored early doors from distance. Eyres volley & a Bamber master goal put us 2-1 at the break. They scored 2 in a minute in the second half to go 3-2 up (& move into 2nd place) but Bolton scored late on (v Nobbers) to deny Port Vale automatic promotion.
Trevor Sinclair scored a goal of season contender but chalked off as ref didn’t play advantage. Vale scored with the last kick to win 2-4. They had the half of the kop & the whole of the east.
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I was stood behind the away dugout with my Walkman on listening to the result come in from the Bolton game. John Rudge was their gaffer and kept asking me for the score!

Think they needed Bolton not to win and it put them in the play-offs, which they lost to West Brom.

But a very good team they had back then. Ian Taylor just coming through.
 
Shootz said:
Think we beat someone else the week before or after by a similar score with Paul Stewart getting 5 goals in the two games resulting in a move to Man City? No doubt someone on here will confirm or deny my recollections....!
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Bristol Rovers at home. Went to both. Stewarts last game was a couple of weeks later in a 3-2 defeat at Notts County, effectively when we sold him that was the end of faint promotion hopes. No play offs in those days.
 
clappers said:
They absolutely love him at Vale and think we were mad to let him go
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They might be right.
Players that come into the game late via a non- conventional route are usually keen to crack on and we probably let him go as we were unable to guarantee him some game time.
 
They’d have sold out as many tkts as allowed on a Saturday. Pool tkt sale not going as well as Burton match so just hope lots are waiting til tomorrow. I like it when the tkt sales show greyed out areas of the north.
 
Towerpower99 said:
If my memory is right didn’t a late Steve Hetzke header salvage us a point at vale in our 80s promotion run in…..
Edit 84/85 season…memory not as bad as I thought.
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30 of their hooligans followed us back to our car that night and trashed it. They even jumped on the roof and kicked the windscreen in so I’ve never really had much time for them to be honest
 
Martonmosser said:
30 of their hooligans followed us back to our car that night and trashed it. They even jumped on the roof and kicked the windscreen in so I’ve never really had much time for them to be honest
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Yea not the best night… it was a nothing was going right game….stood behind the goal and went mental when finally at the other end of the pitch Hetzke headed home…sounds like you had a shit end to the night.
 
Shootz said:
Think we beat someone else the week before or after by a similar score with Paul Stewart getting 5 goals in the two games resulting in a move to Man City? No doubt someone on here will confirm or deny my recollections....!
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Yes - Bristol Rovers at home 6-1 as someone else has said. I was away in London the following weekend and phoned my dad to ask him the Blackpool score.....He said 6-1 and I just shouted yes and put the phone down.. didn't enter my head we might have lost 6-1.. I think Bristol City away was our next match. Went to that with great optimism, when we went 3-1 down their fans were chanting we want 6 off the back of all the pre-match talk of our previous 2 games. Was a long time ago so may also have mis-recollected events. Felt a long journey back from Ashton Gate on a Tuesday night.
 
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