One hit wonders number sixteen: Frank Wintle

In this series we look back at players who only made a solitary appearance for the Valiants. This article features the unfortunate Frank Wintle who waited eight years for a debut only for it to end in disaster…

Top image: Frank Wintle in the background as a Forest player advances on the ball

A long wait ending in heartache…

Picture the scene, it’s February 1957. You’ve been a Port Vale player since 1949 and you’re finally going to get your debut. That’s exactly what happened to defender Frank Wintle although the end result was surely not what he wanted.

Wintle had joined the club in 1949 but had not been given a game by three successive Vale managers – Gordon Hodgson, Ivor Powell and Freddie Steele. Shortly before Norman Low was appointed as manager, Wintle finally got his chance in a game against Nottingham Forest. It would turn out to be a disaster.

The match ended in a 7-1 defeat with Wintle and his fellow defenders overwhelmed by a Forest display orchestrated by former Vale player Eddie Baily. It would be Wintle’s only appearance in a Vale shirt. He was released at the end of the season and moved on to Macclesfield Town.

More one-hit wonders…

• One hit wonders number sixteen: Frank Wintle
• One hit wonders number fifteen: Nelson Agho
• One hit wonders number fourteen: Dan Gore
• Port Vale one hit wonders: number thirteen, Alex Gibson
• Port Vale one hit wonders: number twelve, Tony Betts

All our one-hit wonders