John Ridley passes away: former Port Vale player, who made over 300 appearances during two spells at the club, has passed away aged 67 years of age.
Tall utility player John Ridley initially progressed through the Valiants junior ranks but left to go to University. He returned to the Vale after completing his studies and made his first team debut in 1973.
He was soon a regular first-team pick and was named as the Valiants player of the year in 1976 before he was sold to Leicester City for a then club-record £55,000 fee in 1978.
He returned to Port Vale on a free transfer from Chesterfield in 1982 and he then helped the club to promotion to Division Three in 1982-1983.
In 1985, he left the club in order to join non-league neighbours Stafford Rangers in a player-coach role. He made a total of 310 appearances for the club, scoring nine times.
John Ridley Factfile
Time at club:
1973-1978 and 1982-1985
Appearances:
310
Goals:
9
John Ridley 1952-2020. RIP. Forever Valiant.
John Ridley passes away – your memories
You can share your thoughts or memories of the former Port Vale player by posting a comment at the end of the article.
Very sad. I played in the Vale reserve team in 1963 with Ray Kennedy and Milja Alexis. Stan Matthews was our General Manager and Jackie Moodie our player manager. I followed Johns great career after I retired. Sad loss. Love to his family.
Trevor Dignall
R.I.P John had the privage of caring for John , I will certainly be playing our Elvis songs in his Memory
Top man Ridders – a bit of a cliche, but I’m certainly left thinking that only the very good die so young!
He was an intelligent very likeable guy – I played for him and very much enjoyed his company; he was also a good mate.
Very saddened to hear of his passing – condolences to his family and RIP JR….
He was great for the Spireites winning the Anglo Scottish cup beating Rangers in the Semi Final and Notts County in the final in his 3 seasons at Saltergate he formed a fantastic central defensive partnership with Bill Green who unfortunately passed away in 2017 at the age of 66. Another great guy gone too early RIP ,John Ridley never forgotten in Chesterfield.