Stoke-on-Trent
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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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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: 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
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Acceptance, Inner Peace & The Joy Of A 96th Minute Equaliser
There’s nothing quite like a 96th‑minute equaliser to make the soul tremble with joy. And that noise that came from the Bycars as Martin Sherif wheeled away – that deafening silence from those travellers from Reading – music to my… 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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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
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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
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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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The Last Cry of ‘Derek I’m Gutted!!!’?
There’s a special kind of magic going on in a fanzine, and it’s a magic stitched together with pritt-stick, scissors, tippex, photocopiers, late nights and DIY stubbornness. For 26 years, Derek I’m Gutted!!! has been that magic in print for… 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
tales from the paddock 