Two minute guide to: Bolton Wanderers v Port Vale
Next up for Port Vale is a visit to Bolton Wanderers – a team that Vale have beaten just twice in 34 meetings. Still feeling confident?
In the picture:
The story behind our choice of image we’ve chosen to lead the article with…
The image at the very top of the page shows Port Vale legend Lol Hamlett pictured in his playing days for the Valiants. Born in Stoke-on-Trent, Hamlett joined Bolton from Congleton Town. He played 72 times for Wanderers in a career disrupted by WW2.
He joined the Valiants in 1949 and after more than a hundred games, he finally retired from playing in 1954 aged 37. He returned to the club in 1958 and spent a massive 35 years as coach and physio. A devoutly religious man, he never swore and used to motivate players with encouragement rather than profanities.
He was awarded a richly deserved testimonial in 1976. Lol sadly died in 1986.
Links:
The two sides
Port Vale
- Manager: Bruno Ribeiro
- Last match: 2-2 vs Oxford United
- Top scorer: Alex Jones (8)
Bolton Wanderers
- Manager: Phil Parkinson
- Last match: 2-0 vs Bury
- Top scorer: Zach Clough (4)
Match details
Venue:
Reebok Stadium
Date:
29th October, 2016
Pre-match thoughts
Rigino Cicilia on the game.
Vale team news
Vale will be missing Sam Foley who will undergo an operation on a troublesome ankle injury. However, there is an outside chance that top-scorer Alex Jones may return. Veterans Ryan Taylor and Jerome Thomas are expected to keep their places as is Rigino Cicilia who scored his first senior goal in the draw against Oxford United.
Last time we met…
The two teams last met competitively in March 2000 when Bolton ran out 2-1 winners. Vale’s consolation goal was scored by the much-maligned Ville Viljanen (above).
We’ve also got highlights of a clash from the 1988-89 season below. This is taken from our OVF YouTube channel:
Overall record
Port Vale wins: 2
Port Vale losses: 22
Draws: 10
Form guide
Club connections
Defender Jason Talbot never played a first-team game for Bolton Wanderers. When he moved to Port Vale he did make the first-team – but hit the headlines mostly for the wrong reasons.
Talbot joined Vale in January 2006 and spent two years at the club. However, in that period he managed to get sent-off no less than five times – a club record. It was no great surprise when he was released in 2008.
Vale appearances: 60 games | 0 goals (and five red cards)
Other players to appear for both clubs include:
- Forward Dennis Bailey
- Midfielder Tony Kelly
- Forward Dean Holdsworth
- Keeper Alan Boswell
- Left-back Ray Deakin
- Forward Craig Davies
- Keeper Barry Siddall
Did you know…
- Vale have won just two competitive games against Bolton
- One is shown in the video clip above. The other was in the same season – a 2-1 FA Cup win.
- The winning cup goals were scored by Ron Futcher and Robbie Earle (above)
- All of which means Vale have failed to record a win in their last 13 meetings.
- Even worse… they have lost on their last four visits to Bolton