A Weekend on the English Rivera!

Richard 'freezing' at Plainmoor, certainly the coldest I've known it in Devon!

An away fixture at Torquay was always going to be one of the first matches pencilled in the diary for attendance when the fixtures came out last summer and so it proved! Despite the long treck and recent cold snap creditable 343 Valiants made the effort to see Vale's 5th away win of the season and a first success in Devon since the 1993 win at Plymouth's Home Park.

The Valiant Faithful celebrate 3 points at Plainmoor

The win keeps alive Vale's slim chances of making a late dash for the playoffs although in reality it may be a case of relying on Notts County's downfall(6 points and 3 games in hand clear) and that's even with a winning running! Even the most optomistic fans might see it as a tall order, but if Micky's men can pull off 11 more wins from the remaining 17 games who knows?

From a personnal point of view an interesting weekend, interviewed by Radio Stoke and sampled the local night life. All in all a good weekend had by all!

Torquay Front by night!

UpTheVale

Do we perform so badly in front of large away followings?

After a disappointing result at Burton on saturday a common opinion amongst Vale fans seems to be that the team freezes in front of large followings!
Has this been a common trait with Vale over the years?
This season would suggest mixed fortunes, poor performances at Macclesfield in front of nearly 2300 Vale fans and a 3-1 reserve at big spending Notts County when 1300 travelled were at least followed by positive returns at Shrewsbury and Crewe when over a 1000 and 2000 fans made the short journeys respectively!
However Vale's first competitive league trip to Burton at the weekend resulted in a tepid display when another excellent following of 1996 had made the effort!

From the Away End at Burton's Pirelli Stadium

With a couple more relatively short journeys still to come before the season winds up in May at Chesterfield and Rotherham in March can us hardy Valiants expect better as we aim to push up the table?
Recent evidence would suggest not, certainly in the case of the short treck through the peak district to Chesterfield! Oh dear! On numerous occasions in the last few years I've been part of large Vale followings on the terrace at Saltergate only to see an abject display be punished by the Derbyshire side! This year represents Vale's last chance to take something from Saltergate before Chesterfield move on to pastures new. Rotherham on the otherhand now playing at the Don Valley have seen mixed fortunes for Vale over the years. Aside from an Akpo Sodje masterclass in 2007 Vale haven't extracted too much change from the Yorkshire side with last seasons Boxing day surrender a more common showing!

So it seems a case of swings and roundabouts, going back to 2006 and the debacle from Martin Foyle's Vale in front of a sell out allocation at Crewe was followed by equally disastrous showings at Hereford and the above mentioned Chesterfield! Unfortunately suggesting 'tinman' didn't have too much luck with local games!
Brian Horton on the otherhand could claim an unbeaten record against local rivals Stoke during his tenure at Vale!

So who knows what we can expect? Lets hope the Valiant army descending on the English Rivera at the weekend are rewarded with a good time and most importantly 3 points!

Programme Feature 1:

The first in a new series of features where I'm going to be looking at old Vale programmes and classic matches from days gone(or basically programmes I can find in the box at the back of the wardrobe or up the loft!)
This week a game that will be well known to many Vale fans, the first home game of the 1993/94 promotion season. The match saw Vale take on Barnet for the first time in their history.
A game memorable for many reasons, firstly Barnet's player manager Gary Phillips was forced to go in goal due to injury and I seem to remember was subject to some interesting banter from the first minute onwards! The game didn't start well for the Valiants with an early sending off for centre half Peter Billing seemingly leaving them in a spot of bother! However the match proceeded to offer a thrilling home performance as Vale scored 6 times in the remain 70 minutes! This is believed to be a record for a football league game for a team with ten 10 men(since red and yellow cards became part of football!) scoring the most goals against a team with the full compliment!
A match also remembered for Martin Foyle and Bermie Slaven hitting hattricks, which are incidentally the last home league hattricks at Vale Park! 16+ years and counting!
Unforunately for Barnet this was a sign of things to come and they were relegated back to the 4th tier at the first attempt, however Vale completed a richly deserved promotion in May the following year!


The front cover of the programme shows the aforementioned Martin Foyle and I believe ex Villa defender Paul McGrath which must be in action from a pre-season friendly.



On the back as is normal the team/squad lists. Although some interesting names to note in the Barnet side that day! Future Vale centre back Dave Barnett was on their books along with brother of former England player and manager Glenn Hoddle, Carl Hoddle!