Two minute guide to: Hartlepool Utd
Here’s our traditional pre-match feature for our first cup clash of the new season – a league cup clash against Hartlepool.
Port Vale
Manager: Micky Adams
Last match: 1-1 vs Walsall
Form guide: N/A
Hartlepool
Manager: Colin Cooper
Last match: 0-1 vs Stevenage
Form guide: N/A
Team news
Chris Neal: back in the side or perhaps not?
Hartlepool have no reported injury worries which means former Valiant Sam Collins could make a return to Vale Park. Collins started Pools game against Stevenage on Saturday. Pools also have fellow veterans Marlon Harewood and Tommy Miller in their squad.
Vale’s formation possibilities are more complex. Will Micky Adams stick with the side that did well in patches against Walsall or will he give the likes of Chris Neal, Adam Yates and Michael Brown (who all missed out on starting that game) a chance? Well, here’s our patented “finger in the air” possible starting XI:
Johnson
Veseli – Duffy – McGivern – Dickinson (c)
Brown – O’Connor – Lines
Marshall – Pope – Dodds
Pre-match quote
“We have to be professional irrespective of who we are playing against, whether it is a top-of-the-table team in our division or someone in League Two…”
– Rob Page
Last time we met
The two sides last met back in 2008 when Hartlepool recorded a 3-2 win. Vale had taken a 2-0 lead through two early Chris Herd goals but Krystian Pearce saw red on the hour mark allowing the home side to score three times in the last half-an-hour.
Overall record
- Vale wins: 17
- Hartlepool wins: 18
- Draws: 12
Did you know?
- When Vale lost 5-2 in 2005, skipper Sam Collins was sent-off. Collins now plays for Hartlepool
- The last cup clash between the two sides was in 1994 when Martin Foyle scored a hat-trick in a 6-0 Vale win
- Whoever progresses will be unseeded in the next round which gives the team a strong chance of a draw against a Premier League side
They played for both…
We’re already mentioned that former Vale skipper and player of the year Sam Collins is expected to play tonight.
Other players to appear for both sides include:
- Darrell Clarke, whose entire Vale career infamously lasted just sixty seconds
- Midfielder Tommy Widdrington, who had two spells with the Valiants
- Vale legend Neil Aspin, who finished his playing career with the Pools
- Much-travelled Colin West, who had a loan spell with Vale in 1991 and joined Hartlepool ten years later
- Joe Allon, who enjoyed two spells with both clubs
Port Vale have lost their last FOUR home games against Hartlepool, a run that stretches back to 2004. Those results are as follows:
- 2007: Port Vale 0-2 Hartlepool
- 2005: Port Vale 1-2 Hartlepool
- 2005: Port Vale 0-1 Hartlepool
- 2004: Port Vale 2-5 Hartlepool