Latest Posts
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A Chippy Tea, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Port Vale FC
It is the late seventies. It is Saturday teatime. Vale have just lost. I am with my grandad. And the world, despite what we have just witnessed at Vale Park, is ok. Somewhere on the journey back we would stop… Continue reading
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Doing Nothing Is Still A Decision
We’ve got ourselves into an extraordinary pickle, haven’t we? Again. Just when Vale appear to have taken us to the very depths of despair, they reveal another level beneath it and invite us down. Second from bottom of League Two.… Continue reading
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Away Ends, Industrial Estates, The Other England, and Port Vale FC
There are many ways to spend a weekend. There are people who spend theirs away, and I mean properly away, like boutique hotels in the Cotswolds, coastal walks in Cornwall, spa breaks with complimentary robes and cucumber water. That kind… Continue reading
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Port Vale: The Dreamers and The Merchants of Doom
Of course they’re right, those merchants of doom. Vale’s prophets of pessimism. Before a ball had even been kicked, they knew. They could see calamity gathering on the horizon, steaming towards us like an express train with no brakes. They… Continue reading
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Durkheim, Collective Effervescence, Emotional Contagion and Port Vale FC
Durkheim’s concept of collective effervescence highlights the powerful connection between emotional contagion and football. We have all witnessed it, we have all been part of it, whether we realise it or not. The shared joy, despair, anticipation and belief that… Continue reading
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Port Vale: The Problems We Already Knew About
Here’s the moment. The moment that tells you everything. Hernandez twists away from his full-back, reaches the byline and hangs an inch-perfect cross into the box. Mo Faal is there, utterly unmarked, seven yards from goal with only the (make-believe)… Continue reading
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Port Vale: Nothing Is Won Or Lost Today
Saturday 15 August 2026, 9:15am. Oldham away. First league game of the 2026/27 season. I’m always hit by a huge wave of nostalgia when I come out of Piccadilly Station. There’s something about stepping back into the city where I… Continue reading
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Port Vale, Wolves and The Distance Between Us
The Carabao Cup dream is finally over. Wolverhampton Wanderers snatched it from our hands on Friday night, and if we’re being brutally honest, they were entitled to. Obviously that’s not the story of the night, but let’s start there. Let’s… Continue reading
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Port Vale 2026/27: We Walk This Road Together
Thank fuck that’s over with. May, June, July. Three months of exhausting nothingness. Weeks and days without rhyme or reason, finally, mercifully, behind us. Ok, there was the World Cup, and it did have its moments, just not from us.… Continue reading
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Port Vale: Who’s In, Who’s Out? The Story So Far…
The Vale squad for the 2026/27 season is taking shape, and with football being football there will, of course, be some late twists and turns before the transfer window finally slams shut. An absolute banging new arrival could emerge from… Continue reading
