A Vale of tears in The Park? Port Vale away Sat 13th Aug.3-0 'clock.

[TANGODANCER]

Can we leave The Valients in tears and maintain our current high-flying form? Away is always a tough ask, but the Super Whites will surely try to Stoke the kilns in the Potteries and break a few pots. Same side as pre the Cup one? and who will be fit and ready. Looks like Dion Charles is not quite there yet, so who up front of Dapo, Jon Dadi, Kachunga, Bakayoko or who? I don't care if Traf scored a wind assisted goal kick as long as we win. Bring it on...COME ON YOU WHITES..!

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Vale have played 3-5-2 in all their games so far. It hasn’t always worked. Last night they lost 2-1 at home to Rotherham, although they might have been further behind than 2-0 at the interval before Mal Benning’s 81st-minute arrears-halver led to doomed hope. It was Vale’s only shot on target, and they certainly don’t seem to be goalkeeper-pepperers - two on target in the 4-0 loss to Exeter, two in the opening 2-1 win over Fleetwood.

All three goals this season have come from defenders, so that’s probably why they’ve signed Fleetwood striker Ellis Harrison, who played under Vale boss Darrell Clarke at Bristol Rovers before flopping at Ipswich and Pompey. With last season's top scorer James Wilson out injured, Vale have been partnering teenager Tommy McDermott with warhorse Jamie Proctor (aye that one) up top; the 70s-named Dave Worrall could come back from an injury knock.

Harrison is Vale’s seventh summer signing. Former Wigan winger/forward Gavin Massey will add experience but hasn’t played yet as he’s not fit enough for Clarke’s liking. Midfielder Funso Ojo can be filed under “well-traveled” – a Belgian who came through at PSV and has since played for Scunny, Aberdeen and (again) Wigan.

Then there are the younger lads dropping out of bigger clubs: Vale made Newcastle centre-back Lewis Cass’s loan permanent in summer, ex-Watford Dutch defender Derek Agyakwa may find Burslem less attractive than his former loan club Como, while versatile defender William Forrester became the first player since 1978 to join Vale from Stoke. Somewhere in the middle is Rory Holden, a diminutive midfielder who has had major injury problems but who played under Clarke at Walsall.

In short it sounds like a club who might be regarded as slightly fortunate to have won promotion – they lost three of their last four, only staying in the play-offs thanks to a last-day win at Exeter – not exactly establishing themselves in the third tier. That said, they know how to win – that late wobble was preceded by a storming March/April reaping 25pts from a possible 27 – and in the play-offs they held their nerve to beat Swindon on pengies before obliterating Mansfield 3-0 at Wembley.

Evatt has called Vale "an intimidating place and a difficult place to go" with a "fear factor". Assuming the players won't be wandering the streets of Burslem, the kind of place where visiting fans are fair game even if they're in their seventies, he presumably means on a pitch that Aaron Morley has jokingly called "borderline illegal" for its vast size. That should in theory suit our expansive football – not least Morley, the Radcliffe Pirlo – and it's not the sort of fixture Evatt will want to lose. The home game two years ago was perhaps his lowest point; this should, all being well, be just another notch in the rise.

[Bruce Rioja]

Evatt has called Vale "an intimidating place and a difficult place to go" with a "fear factor". Assuming the players won't be wandering the streets of Burslem, the kind of place where visiting fans are fair game even if they're in their seventies

Truer words rarely spoken. My first ever away ground and one which remains the only ever ground in which I've seen mounted police forced into a stand (yes, the seats as per the Burnden Stand or the Manny Rd) in order to drive back their braying imbeciles. Some years ago we acquired a company in Burslem and I had to visit fairly regularly and engage with the local operatives. It's a horrible, threatening place in which the natives' negotiating position is one of being sure to get the first headbutt in. I hope Evatt's kept the contact details of his Turkish teeth provider

[Harry Genshaw]

Looking forward to this one. Seen us draw there several times with a couple of wins, several years apart, through Caldwell & Chandler and Wheater & Madine.

I think the neutral may see us as a shoe in but we rarely do owt easy and I suspect Vale will be tougher opponents as the season wears on.

1-1 draw.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

1-1 draw.

Look what happened last time we got one of those there…

[Harry Genshaw]

1-1 draw.

Look what happened last time we got one of those there…

Aye. Frandsen and Johansson imperious in teale green. Morley and Dempsey in pale blue the 2022 version?

[Bruce Rioja]

Aye. Frandsen and Johansson imperious in teale green.

Me and my mates wondering which one cost all the money?!

Awesome debuts.

[KeyserSoze]

A peaky 30 degrees at kick off in Burslem on Saturday. If we try and stick with our intensity we will need help off the bench.

[officer_dibble]

Aye. Frandsen and Johansson imperious in teale green.

Me and my mates wondering which one cost all the money?!

Awesome debuts.

Ha! Remember that as my sole visit to Vale Park - sasa who? Was the blonde one really only 250 grand?

[BWFC_Insane]

A peaky 30 degrees at kick off in Burslem on Saturday. If we try and stick with our intensity we will need help off the bench.

If we keep the ball they will need the help….

[officer_dibble]

Keep something on the bench to frighten them - imagine playing an hour in that to see Dapo waiting to come on. Use JDB / Kacha from the off and bring Dapo and Baka on?

[BWFC_Insane]

Keep something on the bench to frighten them - imagine playing an hour in that to see Dapo waiting to come on. Use JDB / Kacha from the off and bring Dapo and Baka on?

Dapo and Baka have earned their start for me. Though I mean JDB and Kacha were excellent midweek. But probably I’d start Dapo and Baka and use the other two as the game progresses. 5 subs means having 4 or 5 strikers at the level we do is incredibly powerful.

[The_Gun]

Ball retention will be key tomorrow in the heat, so I would say there would be an argument to start Lee, but that's unlikely after he played on Tuesday, so Dempsey probably comes back in.

Traff

Jones Santos Johnston

Williams

Bradley Iredale

Dempsey Morley

Dapo Baka


0-2 Bolton win

[Bruce Rioja]

Aye. Frandsen and Johansson imperious in teale green.

Me and my mates wondering which one cost all the money?!

Awesome debuts.

Ha! Remember that as my sole visit to Vale Park - sasa who? Was the blonde one really only 250 grand?

I swear, Frandsen smacked the bar from 20 yards and I felt it in my solar plexus

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

When picking the team, consider we're playing Morecambe Tuesday. Evatt says he already knows the teams for both games, barring injury/suspension/unforeseen (eg Declan chucking up chunks at half-time).

[nicholaldo]

Keep something on the bench to frighten them - imagine playing an hour in that to see Dapo waiting to come on. Use JDB / Kacha from the off and bring Dapo and Baka on?

That reminds me of when Allardyce, with twenty minutes to go, used to replace Kevin Davies with Les Ferdinand.

I just imagine the relief, and then sudden despair, the opposing centre-half must've felt as he saw Davies trudging off after a hard-fought battle only to look over to the touchline and see Ferdinand running on in his place.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Can you name the players humbled 6-3 by Vale less than 20 months ago? How quickly?

https://www.sporcle.com/games/GaryParki ... -vale-2020

[KeyserSoze]

Timed out on 11 out of the 18. Poor.

[brommers95]

18/18 with 0:36 remaining

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Timed out on 11 out of the 18. Poor.

Let me say that on more than one occasion I had to look up the forename.