life
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2025/26 Squad Review Part One: Keepers, Defenders, Wing-backs
Here we go then. No point pretending we need to wait until the final whistle of the season because, honestly, we’ve seen more than enough by now. Everyone’s had their chance, plenty of minutes on the pitch, plenty of time… 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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There Is A Light That Never Goes Out
The board goes up – six minutes. Six. Added. Minutes. And I swear something inside me just snaps like an old elastic band that’s been left in the sun too long. I’m done. Absolutely shredded. Head gone, legs gone, soul… 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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Port Vale: The Art of Stepping Away (And Finding Your Way Back Again)
There comes a moment in every long-term relationship (you know the sort, those messy, life-dented ones) where you look across the room at the person you love and think, “I need a bit of space.” Not doors slammed, boxes packed.… Continue reading
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Port Vale 0-2 Arsenal: A Tale Of Salt And Steel
Vale Park, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. 3rd Round, Carabao Cup. Wednesday 24 September, 2025. 8PM kick-off. We were beaten, yes — 2-0 by a far superior Arsenal side. It was like steering a battered trawler into the path of a gleaming frigate… Continue reading
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Port Vale vs Arsenal: Breakfast And A Morning Stroll
Wednesday 24 September 2025, 08:30. The morning began, as mornings ought, with a ceremony of nourishment both modest and magnificent. An omelette, golden and obedient, enfolded within its curving embrace a portion of smoked haddock – firm, fragrant ,and faintly… Continue reading
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Port Vale 2-1 Mansfield Town: The Reprieve
Saturday 20 September 2025, 3pm. Vale Park, Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. Ninety-five minutes gone and the world hangs on a whistle, the ref a god with a plastic trinket, Ronan Curtis standing there like a man on the edge of a dream… Continue reading
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Port Vale and The Vertu Trophy: Is This All There Is?
The evening will arrive not with fanfare, but with a kind of soft indifference. A Tuesday, perhaps. Or a Wednesday. The days blur. The floodlights blink themselves awake, casting long shadows across the emptying car parks and the slow shuffle… Continue reading
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Port Vale: Here Comes Our Man
The transfer window’s shut. Slammed like a cell door. Locked, bolted, and forgotten. Not that it matters. We were crying out for a striker, one with experience, who knows what’s going on and what needs doing. One who knows those… Continue reading
tales from the paddock 