league-one
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Port Vale: The Final Roll of the Dice
The transfer window has slammed shut. This is it. This is this. So, in comes Andre Gray (Andre fucking Gray! I know, it’s crackers!), two young lads from Everton, the lad from Workington whom Brady worked with at Northampton and,… Continue reading
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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
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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
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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
tales from the paddock 