Match Preview: Port Vale versus Stevenage, 19th October 2019
Can Port Vale bounce back from a poor away performance at Macclesfield and record three points at Vale Park against visitors Stevenage?
Guess the crowd
Don’t forget to get your predictions in for teh latest installment of Barry Edge’s ever-popular Guess the Crowd competition. Follow this link to enter your predictions for the game against Stevenage.
Team news
It will be interesting to see what changes are made after the disappointing defeat to Macclesfield. It’s likely that one of Tom Pope (right) or Richie Bennett will drop out upfront while Will Atkinson and James Gibbons are competing for the right-back slot. Tom Conlon and Manny Oyeleke are both out but Callum Evans and Cristian Montano may return from injury.
Other news
The Valiants have released their first-ever Podcast series which is called Talk of the Vale. The first episode contains an in-depth interview with defender James Gibbons (right). You can find out more and listen to it through this link
Stats
The last meeting at Vale Park, which took part back in April, ended in a hugely disappointing 4-1 loss for the Valiants. Cristian Montano (right) was the scorer of the solitary Vale goal. In fact the Valiants have a poor home record against Stevenage, winning just one of the six meetings. Vale are yet to beat Stevenage at home in the League.
The overall record between the two sides is two Port Vale wins, four Stevenage wins and five draws.
Opposition Guide
Former England Women manager Mark Sampson is the caretaker manager at Stevenage after the sacking of Dino Maamria. There’s some familiar faces in the team including former Crewe defender Ben Nugent, powerful forward Kurtis Guthrie and experienced defender Adam El-Abd. Worryingly for Vale, after failing to win any matches under Maamria, the side have won their last two games.
Connections
The Valiants could come up against former loanee Tyler Denton who signed for Stevenage in the summer. However, the match has come too soon for former Stevenage midfielder Tom Conlon (right), whose good start to the season was disrupted by injury.
Pre-match quote
We certainly won’t be doing that, we feel like we’ve got a way of playing. Obviously we didn’t show that at Macclesfield, but we’ve got a style and an identity so we won’t be ripping that up.
“We’ll be trying to get back to it and going back to the basics. We’ll be trying to be doing them right and trying to do them better.
“Everyone feels like they’re involved, you’re never too far away from the team. We’ve got a tight knit group of players here and they’ll be looking for a reaction on Saturday from themselves…
Port Vale coach Dave Kevan (right)
Memory match
The clubs first met competitively in the FA Cup during the 2009-2010 season. After a last-minute Stevenage goal secured a draw at Vale Park, the replay was screened live on the FA webpage. It ended in a 1-0 win for the Valiants thanks to a goal from Louis Dodds (pictured right).