Port Vale 2-2 York City
Port Vale 2-2 York City: goals from Ryan Burge and Jennison Myrie-Williams were cancelled out by strikes for Rodman and Reid as Vale threw away a two goal lead at home after drawing with York City.
Prior to the match, the long-awaited unveiling of the Sproson statue took place in front of around 1,000 Port Vale supporters.
On the pitch, Vale made three changes with John McCombe, Chris Shuker and Richard Duffy returning in place of Joe Davis, Ashley Vincent and Ben Williamson. Former Vale goalkeeper Paul Musselwhite was on the bench for the visitors.
The rejigged line-up saw Duffy slot in at right-back, Yates move to left-back and Taylor move to the left-wing.
After a relatively uneventful opening, there was a rousing minute’s applause for Roy Sproson on eight minutes and 37 seconds to mark the number of games that the legend had started for the club.
However, visitors York should have scored on the half-hour mark when Rodman missed from the six-yard area.
But against the run of play, Ryan Burge scored his first league goal of his Vale career. Good work from Richard Duffy set up Tom Pope for a blocked shot. The ball came to Burge who applied the finish.
And with minutes to go till the break, there was a handball from Chris Shuker’s ball and Vale were awarded a penalty. Jennison Myrie-Williams scored from the spot to make it six goals for the season.
After a bright finish to the first half, Vale struggled to make a similar impression in the second period and it was York who had the better of the exchanges.
And on the hour mark, York got a goal back as they took advantage of a mistake of poor defending by Taylor and McDonald as Rodman scored.
The visitors pressed for an equaliser as Micky Adams responded to the poor second-half display by replacing Shuker and Taylor with Williamson and McAllister, the latter making his Vale debut.
Vale perked up after the changes and Pope, Dodds and Williamson all had half-chances to extend the home side’s lead.
But it was the visitors who scored a deserved equaliser with two minutes to go as Jamie Reid netted.
Vale surged forward in the closing minutes and could have snatched the win only for Dodds’ strike to be cleared off the line in the dying moments.
It was a disappointing end to the game, but at least the day will be memorable for all the right reasons after legend Roy Sproson finally made his long-awaited return to Vale Park.
Full-time: Port Vale 2-2 York City
Vale: Neal, Duffy, McCombe, McDonald, Yates, Myrie-Williams, Burge, Shuker (Williamson), Taylor (McAllister), Pope, Dodds
Subs: Johnson, James, Lloyd, Davis