football
-
Port Vale and the FA Cup: What if Chelsea Shit The Bed?
Saturday is coming. Quarter-finals of the FA Cup. Away at Chelsea. It’s just sitting there on the horizon like some great shimmering promise or threat – I can’t quite tell which, and that’s half the thrill. I’m letting go of… Continue reading
-
Port Vale and the Unending Misery of League One
That little bit of hope the Bolton game gave us – do you remember that? Of course you do. It’s still clinging to the edges of the week like smoke that hasn’t quite dispersed. Only last Saturday, wasn’t it? And… Continue reading
-
Port Vale and the Art of Graceful Relegation
Three league games since the FA Cup heroics against Sunderland – was that really only ten days ago? – and somehow we’ve squeezed just one point from nine. One point. Even the most devoted optimist, the last believer clinging to… Continue reading
-
In The Tracks Between Us (Awaydays and the National Rail Network)
I’ve never boarded the official supporters’ coach. I just can’t do it. I cannot open that door. And to be absolutely clear, this isn’t a dig at fellow Vale fans – far from it – and it’s certainly not about… Continue reading
-
Port Vale: Going Down Fighting and the FA Cup Fever Dream
There is definitely something happening, right? You can feel it under the skin now – a stubbornness, a resilience, a refusal to lie down that simply didn’t exist a few weeks ago. There’s fight again. There’s spirit again. There’s belief… Continue reading
-
Port Vale And The Many Doors Out Of Here
The Escape From Reality There comes a point where reality feels like a pair of hands around the throat. Not tight enough to kill you – just firm enough to remind you who’s in charge. Bills, headlines, work, the slow… Continue reading
-
The Wilful Disintegration of Port Vale FC
Has there ever been a group of footballers less interested in doing their job than the ones we watched in that second half at Stevenage? They’ve checked out. Utterly. No interest in achieving anything, no urgency, no pride. Just a… Continue reading
-
Continental Drift: Port Vale’s European Experiment, 2016/17
The 2016/17 season was, for so many reasons, an astonishing one for Vale. Not quite on the level of the Jim Gannon Experience™ – nothing short of an exorcism could match that – but still deeply shambolic in its own… Continue reading
-
Paulo Tavares, Cognitive Dissonance, and Port Vale FC
I’d like to pull on your coat for a minute and tell you a story. It’s about Cognitive Dissonance and Confirmation Bias – those psychological mechanisms that allow us to overlook reality and follow our own narrative. It’s about those… Continue reading
-
¡Bienvenido, Compañero Hernández!
Look at us. We’ve dipped into the global talent pool and come up clutch. Onel Hernández doesn’t just arrive from the long, unromantic road that is Charlton, Norwich, Middlesbrough and Birmingham, no, Hernández arrives with the unmistakable imprint of Cuba… Continue reading
tales from the paddock 