It’s 1950 and the start of an exciting new era for Port Vale – the move to the Vale Park stadium – here’s how the Sentinel previewed the forthcoming season…
Our thanks to Alan Heath for providing these images.
How the season went…
Well, Vale won their first game at Vale Park with Walter Aveyard scoring in a 1-0 win over Newport County. The much-heralded Syd Peppitt failed to have much of an impact, scoring just three times in eleven appearances. In contrast, Cliff Pinchbeck finished as top-scorer with 19 goals as the side finished in twelfth place in the Third Division South.
November saw club legend Roy Sproson made his debut for the club while Bill McGarry was sold to Huddersfield (and he would later play for England).
In the FA Cup, Vale were handed their first Potteries derby game since 1933 as they drew neighbours Stoke City in the third round. Vale drew 2-2 at the Victoria Ground, but lost the replay 1-0 in front of a crowd of 49,500 at Vale Park.
The season ended on a sad note. Manager Gordon Hodgson was suffering from “illness” (later revealed to be cancer) and he sadly passed away during the summer of 1951.
Wasn’t the cup replay also played at Stoke’s Victoria Ground due to Vale Park being unfit due to drainage problems?
It remains a mystery to me why the club needed to construct such a huge stadium which is still a financial drain some 75 years later.
What would have marked Vale Park out in the 1950s would have been its construction with concrete terracing and a main stand containing no wood. Wooden stands were only phased out after the Bradford fire.
Only older fans will remember when clubs had 2 teams. A first and reserve team for which you needed 22 players and no subs.
I reckon 2 or 3 thousand would have watched the reserves in Hanley in the Cheshire League.
Ftao Ian Mountford. Yes we played a home replay at the Victoria Ground. Outplayed Stoke in both games I believe. The Vale Park pitch had a lot of initial problems causing abandonments and postponements. We ended up fitting in 6 home games in April 1951. Crowds dwindled to 2-3000 sadly by the end of the season.
The replay was at the Victoria Ground on the Monday afternoon after the 2-2 draw on Saturday afternoon. Big crowd for a working day. Vale Park was frost bound in the middle of drainage work at the time. The idea behind Wembley of the North was as a potential Semi-Final ground for games between the Midlands and the all powerful Lancashire clubs of the time.