Match report: Port Vale 2-3 Wycombe
Late goals from Dan Turner and Ben Whitfield were not enough as a poor Vale side were put to the sword by old adversary Ade Akinfenwa.
Manager Michael Brown gave a full debut to keeper Sam Hornby and also started with Rekeil Pyke upfront.
However, Hornby’s debut got off to a horror start when he failed to stop an Akinfenwa effort after just two minutes. It got worse for Vale when Paris Cowan-Hall outpaced Wilson and curled the second around Hornby to put Wycombe 2-0 up after just twelve minutes.
On 25 minutes it became truly dire as Akinfenwa’s head flicked the ball home after more poor Vale defending. The rest of the first-half was forgettable as Vale were reduced to chasing shadows with too many passes going astray and more ineffective defending.
It wasn’t much better in the second period despite Brown bringing on youngsters Reeves and Turner and switching winger Cristian Montano for Whitfield, who made his Vale debut.
Vale were reduced to a couple of half chances for Pope and Harness until the dying moments when efforts from Turner and Whitfield gave them hope but unfortunately it was too little, too late.
Vale: Hornby, Wilson, Smith, Kay, Denton, Pugh (Reeves), De Freitas, Harness, Montano (Whitfield), Pyke (Turner), Pope
Subs: Forrrester, Davis, Gibbons, Boot