Ultimate Port Vale XI: central midfield
Ultimate Port Vale central midfield: we’re asking Port Vale fans to select their finest-ever Valiants line-up and now it’s time to vote for the greatest central midfielders
Note: this Ultimate XI vote will be a little different than previous polls as with two positions on offer, you can place more than one vote in the forum poll
Ultimate Port Vale central midfield
1. Rules and notes
- There will be a dedicated forum discussion thread for each position (a link is below).
- The forum discussion thread will have a poll attached containing the list of our shortlisted players. This makes it fair (one user one vote) and stops any outside influences (Stoke fans, we’re looking at you!) from trying to influence the poll as only registered forum users can vote
- OVF will provide a shortlist of players that we think are suitable candidates. However, if we have missed a candidate out and you make a compelling case for their inclusion we will add them to the poll.
- A player will appear in their most common position (e.g. Neil Aspin played right-back but is more familiar as a centre-half; Robbie Earle played as a striker but is best-known as a midfielder)
- The formation for the best-ever XI is a classic 4-4-2 formation
- A player must have played 50 first-team games for the Valiants to qualify
2. The OVF Shortlist
Robbie Earle: after graduating through the youth ranks, local lad Robbie soon became a fixture in the engineroom and earned renown as a goalscoring midfielder
Ray Walker: an elegant ballplayer who was deadly from set pieces, Walker was known as the “Hoddle” of the lower leagues
Ian Taylor: a snip of a signing from non-league, the tall goalscoring midfielder was an immediate hit and earned a £1m move to the top-flight
Ian Bogie: a bargain signing by John Rudge, Bogie is renowned for his memorable goals including strikes against Everton and Stoke City
Robin van der Laan: the club’s first European signing was a huge success as the combination of skill, tough tackling, goalscoring and hard work endeared the Dutchman to the Vale fans
Tommy McLaren: a cult hero among older Vale fans, Tommy always put 100% effort into his numerous appearances in the Vale shirt
Brian Horton: one of a select group to both manage and play for the club, Horton was signed from non-league Hednesford but quickly became the star man in the Vale sides of the seventies
Harry Poole: renowned for his set-piece ability, local lad Harry sits in third place in the club’s all-time appearance records
Albert Leake: while perhaps not strictly a central midfielder we found it difficult to leave the goalscoring legend of the 1954 side out of the midfield vote
John Green: renowned for his elegant play, Green was player of the year as Vale won promotion under Gordon Lee
3. Time to place your vote
To place your vote you need to be a registered user of our forum and go to this forum thread
Voting closes in a month’s time.