Two minute guide to Port Vale v Carlisle United

Can Vale revive their recent terrible home form? It will be a tough task against promotion chasing Carlisle United…

Two new faces?

Home fans could see two new faces in the Vale line-up. Loan signing Adam Crookes (who made an impressive debut against Crawley) could make his home debut while new signing Mark Harris could start upfront.

It’s tricky to predict what other changes Neil Aspin will put in place but he may be tempted to stick with Ricky Miller (right) upfront after his goal against Crawley. It won’t be Louis Dodds after the forward returned to Chesterfield this week.

Aspin says home form is key

“It’s going to be a difficult game because Carlisle are doing well; they’ve won seven of their last ten games. But we can’t pick and choose who we’re going to play, we’ve got to improve our own form. We have to make sure we defend better than we have done in the home games because we need to be solid to try and win the game. That’s going to define our season, how we do at home. We can’t expect to be picking up results away from home all the time, but certainly at home you have to be winning your fair share of games…”

Port Vale manager Neil Aspin

Pressley next to take the Carlisle hotseat

Carlisle United manager Stephen Pressley will be taking charge of his second game after being appointed manager on the 16th January. His first game ended in a 2-0 win over Cheltenham Town.

A poor recent record

The two sides have met thirty six times with honours exactly even after thirteen wins apiece. However, Vale have lost three of the last four meetings with Vale’s last home victory coming back in 2015.

The Valiants’ last win over Carlisle was back in December 2017 when Vale won 2-1 at Carlisle thanks to goals from strike duo Tyrone Barnett and Tom Pope (right)

Familiar foes for Joyce

After an inconsistent start to his Vale career, defensive midfielder Luke Joyce has been a regular started in recent weeks and is all set to line-up against his former teammates. Joyce had two spells with Carlisle making a total of 171 appearances. He moved to Vale Park in the summer after signing a two-year contract.

Away from the game…

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