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Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in EFL League One but will play in EFL League Two in the 2024–25 season after suffering relegation. Vale are named after the valley of ports on the Trent and Mersey Canal. They have never played top-flight football, and hold the record for the most seasons in the English Football League (112) without reaching the first tier. After playing at the Athletic Ground in Cobridge and The Old Recreation Ground in Hanley, the club returned to Burslem when Vale Park was opened in 1950. Outside the ground is a statue to Roy Sproson, who played 842 competitive games for the club. The club's traditional rivals are Stoke City, and games between the two are known as the Potteries derby.
Robert Fitzgerald Earle MBE is an English-born Jamaican former international footballer who played as an attacking midfielder. He played 578 league games in senior club football, scoring 136 goals.
Roy Sproson was an English footballer and football manager for Port Vale. A one-club man, he holds the all-time appearance record for Vale, making 837 starts for Vale between 1950 and 1972. This includes a run of 128 consecutive appearances between April 1954 and March 1957. He is also sixteenth on the all time Football League appearance list.
Neil Aspin is an English football manager and former player.
Andrew Michael Porter is an English former professional footballer turned coach and manager who is a first-team coach at Northern Premier League Division One West club Nantwich Town. His playing career spanned from 1986 to 2006 and for the majority of his career he played for Port Vale. His successes with the club include winning promotion out of the Third Division via the play-offs in 1989, lifting the Football League Trophy in 1993, and playing in the final of the Anglo-Italian Cup in 1996. He later played for Wigan Athletic, Mansfield Town, Chester City, Northwich Victoria, and Kidsgrove Athletic.
Dean Victor Glover is an English former football player and manager. A cultured and stylish defender, he had the ball control skills of a midfielder. He played 457 league games in a seventeen-year career in the English Football League.
Raymond Walker is an English former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. He played 440 games for Port Vale in all competitions between 1986 and 1997, ensuring himself a place in the club's history. He was twice the club's player of the season, and was named on the PFA Team of the Year three times. He was promoted twice with the club and also played a part in the club's highest ever post-war finish in the English Football League. With Aston Villa in the early '80s, he joined Port Vale in 1986, after a short loan spell in 1984. After eleven years at Vale Park he went into non-League football with Leek Town and Newcastle Town.
Mark Stuart Grew is an English former football player and coach who played as a goalkeeper.
In English football, the Potteries derby is the local derby between the two major clubs in the city of Stoke-on-Trent – Port Vale and Stoke City, first contested in 1882. Port Vale plays at Vale Park whilst Stoke play at the bet365 Stadium, the two grounds are separated by roughly 4.3 miles (6.9 km). The fans of each club both consider the other to be their main rivals; this has led to a heated atmosphere at these matches. One study in 2019 ranked it as the joint-28th biggest rivalry in English professional football, level with the Manchester derby. The two teams have met in 92 competitive first-team fixtures, including 44 English Football League, six FA Cup and two Football League Trophy fixtures, with the remaining 40 meetings coming in regional cup competitions.
David Harris is an English former football defender who had a six-year professional career in the English Football League with Port Vale from 1973 to 1979. He was voted the club's Player of the Year in 1974 and 1977. He then spent two seasons with Halifax Town, before entering the non-League scene with Stafford Rangers.
Raymond Williams is an English former footballer who played as a striker.
John Ridley was an English footballer. A versatile player able to play as a defender or midfielder, he had a twelve-year professional career in the English Football League, playing for Port Vale and Chesterfield, as well as Leicester City. He also played for non-League Stafford Rangers and for American side Fort Lauderdale Strikers.
Andrew Mark Jones is a former Wales international footballer. A striker, he won six caps at international level and scored one goal. In domestic football he made 336 league and cup appearances in the English Football League and scored 116 goals.
George Rushton was an English footballer who played on the wing for Burslem Port Vale, Barrow, Brighton & Hove Albion, Hull City, Swindon Town, Brentford, and Goole Town at the start of the 20th century.
The 1993 Football League Second Division play-off final was a football match played on 30 May 1993 at Wembley Stadium, London, between Port Vale and West Bromwich Albion to determine the third and final team to gain promotion from the Second Division to the First Division. The top two teams of the 1992–93 Football League Second Division season gained automatic promotion to the First Division, while those placed from third to sixth place in the table took part in play-offs; the winners of the play-off semi-finals competed for the final place for the 1993–94 season in the First Division.
The 1993 Football League Trophy final was a football match between Port Vale and Stockport County on 22 May 1993 at Wembley Stadium, London. It was the final match of the 1992–93 Football League Trophy, the 10th season of what had previously been called the Associate Members' Cup, a cup competition for teams from the Second Division and Third Division of the Football League. Stockport were beaten finalists in the 1992 Associate Members' Cup final, whereas it was Port Vale's first final in the competition and first appearance at Wembley.
Nathan James Smith is an English professional footballer who plays as a defender for EFL League One club Port Vale, where he is also club captain. He has won praise for mental attributes such as bravery, consistency and commitment, as well as for his pace and strength.
The 2022 EFL League Two play-off final was an association football match which was played on 28 May 2022 at Wembley Stadium, London, to determine the fourth and final team to gain promotion from EFL League Two, the fourth tier of English football, to EFL League One. The top three teams of the League Two, Forest Green Rovers, Exeter City and Bristol Rovers, gained automatic promotion to League One, while the clubs placed from fourth to seventh in the table took part in the 2022 English Football League play-offs. Port Vale and Mansfield Town competed for the final place in the 2022–23 season in League One.
References
- 1 2 3 Kent, Jeff (1996). Port Vale Personalities. Witan Books. p. 256. ISBN 0-9529152-0-0.
- ↑ Dave Rushton at the English National Football Archive (subscription required)