The Opponent: Port Vale
A miracle happened today. There I was, enjoying my dinner, randomly watching Points West, and they must have had a whole 3-4 minutes of Swindon Town. I have never really known us to get much more than a nod from the Beeb when it comes to STFC coverage on Points West, even when Di Canio was around. But we were treated to a good 30 seconds from Mark Cooper and then a rather chirpy Jed declaring we are going for promotion and going for promotion as a self sustainable model rather than the overspending monster we had became. They pointed out that our average starting age against Oldham was a little over 22 and the powers that be also confirmed that our current league position of 8th was a fair bit better than what they were expecting, which was probably the thoughts of most of us a few months back, so credit where credit is due to Cooper and the team and McRory and his partners. And Sangita Shah? I bet she makes a blinding cuppa.
Port Vale visit the County Ground for what is forecast to be a rather windy affair today, with gusts of up to 50mph possible predicted by The Met Office, although if last week’s ‘Hurricane’ is anything to go by the wind will probably go unnoticed. Perhaps its just me but Port Vale seem to have hung around the lower leagues for as long as I can remember. I remember visiting The Potteries a couple of years back (Lukas Magera anyone?) and I have to say the surrounding area was amongst some of the most ghastly and deprived I had seem on my travels for quite a few years. The only businesses that seemed to prosper in the area were the ones that supplied board for covering up broken windows, although I don’t seem to remember feeling this way when we visited their considerably larger and more illustrious neighbour, Stoke City, perhaps that was down to it being a dark Tuesday evening, after all, even Margate looks nice when its dark. The area of Burslem is one of the towns that form the city of Stoke on Trent, its main contribution to the world being pottery making giants, Wade and Moorcroft, which sound more like a dodgy northern law firm to me. Burslem’s most notable folk include Port Vale shareholder, Robbie Williams, arrow throwing legend Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor, Motorhead’s Lemmy, and the forefather of many a Princess Di tribute plate, Josiah Wedgewood.
The Last Time We Met – It doesn’t seem that long ago, I have the DVD somewhere. We trounced Port Vale 5-0 on the final day of a manic 2011/12 season in front of a packed County Ground to lift the League 2 championship. Happy Days.
They have served us both – Morris Jones, Ralph Hunt, Calvin Andrew, Tim Parkin, Billy Paynter, Ashley Westwood, Jimmy Kelso, Ken Beamish, Paul Edwards and apologies to Reg for the forgotten many.
Where the opposition gather – http://www.onevalefan.co.uk/forum/forumdisplay.php?7-Port-Vale-presentPort Vale Last 6 – WDLLWW (Currently 9th in League 1 level pegging with us)
The Odds – Swindon 8/11 Draw 5/2 Port Vale 4/1 I’m not sure the bookies are giving Vale much credit for what they have achieved in the last couple of seasons. Administration in 2012, promotion follows to league 1 through Mickey Adams and they find themselves just a couple of points outside the play off positions on League 1. Longshot of the day has to be the 50/1 that BetFred are offering for Nathan Thompson to score the 1st goal, which is 20’s pretty much everywhere else!
The Son Says – “Do you remember when we beat them 5-0 and Caddis lifted the trophy”, as if it was 10 years ago. After little deliberation he has opted for a 3-0 home win.
The Prediction – After ending our fantastic home record a couple of weeks back now is the time to put an end to the back to back defeats, and we shall, with a 3-0 victory, goals from Ajose (2) and Ranger. 8088 in attendance with 444 from The Potteries.
And Finally – Port Vale enjoyed the best away support in proportion to home support in the Football League in the 2012–13 season.
