After our enthralling opening day win at an exuberant and enthralled CCS, this Thursday (feels like a really odd day for a league game) sees us head up the M5/M6 for a jaunt a little way past Stoke to Burslem and Vale Park, the home of Port Vale FC. This will be the first visit to this arena since a league cup win some 11 years ago and it represents a chance to frequent a ‘proper’ stadium for the first time this season rather than yet another soulless bowl full of tourists as we had become rather accustomed to from our time in the upper echelons of the League. Can we continue our fine start? Ok, ok, I know it’s just 1 game so far but from what I’ve seen and heard it’s been like someone has changed the batteries in our lamp after years of putting up with half charges Poundland ones we’ve had some Duracell inserted into the appropriate places and it’s a night and day difference to last season, or the season before, or the one before that…. In short, I think we’ve seen the light and hopefully we continue heading towards it at full pelt (but let’s just hope it’s not a freight train coming right at us!!). Who Are You? We open our away account against a Port Vale side who secured promotion from League 2 (Division 4) last season, finishing as runners up behind Doncaster Rovers. Vale’s history is rather chequered, with their formation date being disputed amongst fans and historians, but it’s believed to be between 1876 and 1879, regardless of when it was though, after their formation the club was actually liquidated after the 1906-07 season, with minor league side Cobridge Church subsequently adopting the name of Port Vale and returning to football league action in 1919 (replacing Leeds City who were disbanded for financial misdemeanours – some things never change eh – dirty underhand Leeds??). The Valiants are it’s fair to say the quintessential lower league team having never made it to the top flight in their entire history, with a 5th place 2nd tier finish being their best ever placement at a season’s end. Vale’s top scorer last season was Lorent Tolaj, with 14 goals from his 37 games played, someone who from what I have seen, may prove to be a handful. Next on the scoring charts came the experienced Jayden Stockley with 11 from 38 and then a raft of smaller totals throughout the team. Tolaj is a Swiss player who was released by Brighton without making a first team appearance back in 2023. He joined Aldershot on a free, scoring 14 goals in 37 games for the ‘Shots’ before signing for Vale for an undisclosed fee. A Swiss u-19, Tolaj has scored 9 goals in 4 games at that International level (yep, you read that right, 9 in 4 – he scored 8 in a single game against Gibraltar!), so he clearly knows where the net is. Vale’s squad has a handful of familiar names in it, with the aforementioned Stockley, ex-loan Bluebird stopper Ben Amos, Skipper George Byers (ex-Jack & Sheff Weds) and former Sky-Blue Jordan Shipley. Port Vale gaffer is the much respected Darren Moore who is now in his 5th managerial role, having has a short stint at Huddersfield following his rather shoddy departure from Sheffield Wednesday. First And Last Our first ever game against Port Vale came in March 1921, a game which saw City defeated 2-1 by Vale in a 2nd division match at Ninian Park in front of a reported crowd of 30,000. Bily Grimshaw was City’s scorer that day. The season was actually City’s first in the football league 2nd Division having been voted in to that level via ballot of the existing members. The Bluebirds would actually go on to gain promotion to the 1st Division at the first time of asking – finishing as runners up on goal average to Birmingham. William (Billy) Grimshaw - not to be confused with Radio 1's Nick Grimshaw - very different ball skills!! Last time out saw the Bluebirds triumph at Vale Park in a League Cup 2nd round game by a thrilling 2-3 scoreline in front of just over 4,300 fans – with 2 goals coming from ex-Man Utd starlet Federico Macheda, a player that proved to be a bit of a flop for the City in the end. It has to be said, the opening goals for each side were both pretty impressive – Joe Ralls for City… remember him?? As far as league action goes, we have to go all the way back to February 2003, where again the Bluebirds were victorious on the road, picking up 3 points in a 2-0 win at Vale Park at the same level in the league we now find ourselves in. City’s goals that day came from the man with a leap like a salmon (Gavin Gordon) and the man with the magic hat, Mr Peter Thorne. Apparently we should be on for a bigger crowd this time around - maybe it's because we are now even more famous than before so the Vale fans are keen to get a glimpse of the Champions elect?? That 2002/2003 season would of course go on to see the Bluebirds promoted to the 2nd tier via that memorable play-off final win at the Millennium Stadium. Gavin Gordon in action for City in the 1st leg of the successful play-off games against the Wurzels Form The Bluebirds head into this one on the back of an inspirational opening day win at the CCS, displaying signs of attacking football not seen perhaps since the days of Dave Jones (am I being a bit over effusive here?? To be fair we have suffered some pretty turgid times since then, even during our promotion campaigns). After that opening game we registered as having the 7th highest possession stats and 3rd highest shot count in the division. By contrast our hosts suffered a demoralising return to this level, going down 2-1 away at Rotherham in a game that Vale dominated statistically but were undone early on with the sending off of Jaheim Headley within minutes of having gone 2-0 down. Darren Moore made some decisive substitutions at half time which reaped rewards when Connor Hall pulled one back for the visitors. Rotherham themselves then went down to 10 men but did enough to hang on despite the pressure being applied by Vale as they chased an equaliser. Vale are clearly a team who know where the net is, with their biggest win last season coming during their last 6 games (5-0 v Bromley) and, just to bring it back to the stats, Vale were one of the two teams to register more shots that us on the opening day with 19 compared to our 16 attempts. Think this all sounds like it’s building up nicely for another rip roaring cracker? On The Pitch As stated ahead of Saturday’s opener, trying to guess our line up would have been like throwing darts at pictures of the squad in the dark whilst blindfolded – and so it turned out to be, with BBM naming our youngest starting 11 for nearly a century and giving starting debuts to several players including at goalkeeper with young Matt Turner being chosen ahead of both “1st team” colleagues – quite some statement. With just a single player aged above 23 (that being the ‘ancient’ 28 year old Wintle) it seems youth and enthusiasm are trumping our previously ‘tried and tested’ hardened campaigners in a far bigger way than I think any of us foresaw. I imagines Chambers (as captain) will come into the side, and could we see our only new face this season in the shape of Nathan Trott between the sticks?? I’d guess probably not given that Turner did nothing wrong on his debut on the weekend. Predicted Starting 11 Turner Bagan Fish Chambers Kpakio Wintle Davies Colwill (R) Colwill (J) Tanner Salech The Odds Decided to try another bookies this week – if my mental arithmetic is correct then these guys seem to think we should be picking up another 3 points?? If it is, let’s hope it’s a 2-4 type scoreline, just to give us more thrills (greedy, moi???) C’mon The City!!!!
An epic compared to Ben Hur. While they got turned over at Rotherham, Port Vale look a very capable outfit and may be a much sterner test than Peterboro.
Great read.....and memories of Burslem for me. Dead town with real potter instincts coming through. Worked with a young lady (most delightful eyes, I recall) who went on to be FD for Stoke and Bolton Wanderers.
What a cracking match day thread, Brizzle. Possibly your best to date and so informative. It really is a pleasure to read your input about the history of other clubs. Thank you.
The away stand at Vale Park is from Chester's old Sealand Road stadium. As I well know, it's a long way from Burslem to Hull on a coach with bricked in windows, worse still when it's snowing, happy days.
Thanks for that.. I know when we demolished Ninian Park, quite a few of our seats went to other clubs (can't recall which league of Wales side had some and I think from memory Chasetown took some too?) but I'm not sure I've ever seen a whole stand purchased, at least not at a professional level anyhow!!
The two newish stands, behind each goal, that were at Scarborough's McCain Stadium were 'bought' by Featherstone Rover RL Club and re-erected there. I'm fairly sure they paid for the demolition of the stadium, and got the stands for free as part of the deal. The views expressed in my posts are not necessarily mine.
The recipient of said seats, Bangor City F C, went bust in 2025. Is VT still looking for blue seats for the Upper Ninian? Just asking. There is another Bangor F C side arisen from the ashes, playing in some very lower tier Welsh Division.
I thought the Fan’s Leader bought parts of the ground to create a mini Ninian Park replica in his garden
