League 1

  • Where the Mind Rests: Football, Sanctuary, and Vale Park

    What does Vale Park mean to you? Every time I see a photo of the ground from the 1970s, I’m instantly taken back to my childhood and, more specifically, to my football experience of that era – walking down Dolly’s… Continue reading

    Where the Mind Rests: Football, Sanctuary, and Vale Park
  • Port Vale 1-3 Exeter City: After the Iceberg

    I stayed to the bitter end. I always do. It’s the Final Act that fascinates me – the moments after the whistle, when the curtain drops on a dismal performance and everyone has to live with what’s just happened. That… Continue reading

    Port Vale 1-3 Exeter City: After the Iceberg
  • Become the Beast: Jon Brady and the Machiavellian Playbook

    Safety sits eleven points above us – and it’s a huge, jagged mountain to climb. And Jon Brady? He’s the man with his boots on, head down, ready to scale it. Ready to lead the way. Twentieth place in League… Continue reading

    Become the Beast: Jon Brady and the Machiavellian Playbook
  • Port Vale: Ball Number Four

    Tonight the balls will rattle in the bowl and the ghosts of giant-killings will lean in close, because the FA Cup 4th round draw is upon us and Vale are still breathing. Skin in the game, knuckles scraped, after a… Continue reading

    Port Vale: Ball Number Four
  • Port Vale and The Return Of 4-4-2

    It went massively out of style, didn’t it? One minute 4‑4‑2 was the backbone of British football, the formation you could sketch on a beer mat over a few pints on a Friday night, the next minute it was treated… Continue reading

    Port Vale and The Return Of 4-4-2
  • Huddersfield Town 5-0 Port Vale: How Soon Is Now?

    I don’t bother with his post‑match interviews anymore. There’s never an apology, never a hint of responsibility, never even the faintest flicker of accountability for this never‑ending horror show. Just more of the same endless nothingness. He doesn’t even look… Continue reading

    Huddersfield Town 5-0 Port Vale: How Soon Is Now?
  • Port Vale Vs Peterborough United: All or Nothing

    Peterborough Town roll into town on Saturday, fellow strugglers, albeit beginning to climb out of the dirty relegation pond, and we need to win. We absolutely need to win. And it does not matter how we do that. Because playing… Continue reading

    Port Vale Vs Peterborough United: All or Nothing
  • Cut Adrift: Vale’s December Crisis

    Nobody’s doing us any favours, are they? Peterborough, Exeter, Plymouth and Blackpool have all won league games over the last two nights. We didn’t lose because it was chucking it down and Vale Park has never coped with that. The… Continue reading

    Cut Adrift: Vale’s December Crisis
  • Port Vale: Fiddling While Rome Burns

    The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” – George Orwell After Saturday’s demoralising, utterly predictable defeat, we needed something from the club—a sign, a message, anything. Just… Continue reading

    Port Vale: Fiddling While Rome Burns
  • Port Vale 0-1 Plymouth Argyle: Life Extinct

    After weeks of hard work and endeavour we have finally achieved our goal of reaching the bottom of League 1, taking over that mantle from yesterday’s visitors, Plymouth. Our quest for 4th division football seemingly impossible to stop. Darren Moore… Continue reading

    Port Vale 0-1 Plymouth Argyle: Life Extinct