Grimsby v Port Vale Preview

The Opposition

Port Vale take their name not surprisingly from Burslem’s impressive maritime history but from the place the football club was formed. So in 1876 at the Port Vale House somewhere in the suburbs of Stoke Port Vale Football Club was formed moving to Burslem in 1884 renaming themselves Burslem Port Vale which evidently didn't catch on and in 1892 they joined us in a great big love in creating the Second Division as a result. Vale spent a while out of the league after 1892 and in 1919 they were asked back in somewhat sensational circumstances having to complete Leeds City’s fixture after they were found out for being naughty boys. Since then Vale have plodded along like ourselves and enjoyed a FA Cup semi final and one of the few teams to win the Football Trophy twice.

Vale’s first season back in Division 4 since 1986 and was one which we are all too aware off i.e. It’s dull, depressing and there is no easy way out. Vale’s first season was so tough back down here that it resulted in Dean Glover standing down from his post as manager. Those Vale were able to win 4 out of 5 away games in a brief rallying spell around Christmas Vale finished a depressing 18th just 7 points about ourselves so it must have been bad!

Is surely about letting Micky Adams create and mould the team he wants. Even if it is a year of "transition" Vale have started fruitfully especially in the cup and especially against anyone from Sheffield. So far this year Vale have vanquished both Wednesday and The Blades in the League Cup, The Blades even more impressively at Bramall Lane. In the league it’s all about the draw 3 out of the 5 games played have ended in a stalemate with Vales only win against woodworm ridden Darlington and their only defeat so far was in the derby match against Macclesfield.

For a decade Neil Aspin was a defensive linchpin in one of Vale's greatest periods of football. In his first year at the club alone after leaving Leeds in 1989 Aspin was voted player of the year and spearheaded The Valiants first of 2 wins in the League Trophy in 1993. In total Aspin amassed an incredible 348 games at Vale Park before moving on to Darlington and then further on to Darlo’s rivals Hartlepool. Currently Aspin is managing Halifax Town and was linked with the vacant Vale position before Micky Adams was hired.

Muddled rumours of financial problems plague most of us down here and with arch rivals Stoke now been the new darlings of The Premier League even though their fans do tend to be in the words of Danny Dyer "pwoper nawghty" It’s hard for Vale to encourage more fans through the turnstiles reduced season tickets have tried to encourage more through the gate but that will only improve as Vale’s performances do.

Robbie Earle, Tommy Widdrington and most recently of all Chris Birchall will all be known to us. Birchall was the darling of ITV’s god awful World Cup coverage in 2006 who patronisingly followed him around during his time at Trinidad and Tobago. "Awww look a lower league footballer can kick the ball it’s so cute!" Get over yourselves and if you're going to cut away from football coverage at least do what the BBC did and show Kate Bosworth hiking her dress up.

Marc Richards. Wolverhampton-born Richards was the only player who was able to break into double figures last season his 11 goals helped keep any idea of relegation away from The Valiants door. And so far the much travelled striker has continued his steady scoring managing to grab 4 so far. After starting out at Blackburn in 2000 Richards was sent out to numerous clubs to find his feet and it was at Swansea where he impressed so much so that he joined Northampton only for him to be sent out on loan to Rochdale at the end of his two year period at Sixfields. After another 2 years at Barnsley he joined Vale on a free and the strong athletic forward will be something for our new loan goalie to test himself against.

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Head to Head

Town have a slender lead, but draws between the two teams are rare.

P 83 W 36 D 16 L31 F143 A126

Head-to-Head (34th on The Opposition Ladder)

Last Meeting

Grimsby 3 Port Vale 0 (Sat 18th Apr 2009)

A comfortable win for Town during last season's run-in.

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Random Fact

Only 3 words in the original Oxford Dictionary start with the letters D,W. They are of course Dwindle, Dwarf and Dwell. Yes I'm a dweeb.