Our brand new two minute guide looks ahead to Port Vale’s home game against Notts County…
Pre-match talking points
Will that defence make it five clean sheets in a row? Everyone seems to be singing the praises of Vale’s back-line including central defender Nathan Smith (right) and manager Neil Aspin
The Valiants have also been boosted by the return of duo Manny Oyeleke and Cristian Montano although neither will be in contention for this game. In fact, Aspin has told Montano he needs to up his game.
Any other business
Don’t forget that the club shop is selling special limited edition badges to support the Royal British Legion and the one hundredth anniversary of the end of World War One.
Quotes
“You look at the size of the club – I’ve played against them a few times in my career – they’re clearly a big club and they’ll be looking to get promotion out of the league. A new manager has come in, and a new manager will always want to bring in some of his own players but it takes time as well as implementing his own style of play.
“We won’t treat Notts County any differently to how we treated Bury – if we don’t work as hard as we did against Oldham and Bury, we certainly won’t win the game. If we all do our jobs and work hard, then we are capable of getting the result…”
Port Vale manager Neil Aspin
“Hopefully we’ve shown improvements over the last few weeks, but Saturday is another opportunity to do that. If we go out there and put in another good performance, we have a good chance of getting three points.”
Port Vale midfielder Luke Joyce
“We’ve got to go there and battle. We need to give them something to think about rather than worrying too much about what they bring. It won’t be too different to our game plan for previous matches because we want to scare them and will stick to our way of playing. We know their style, though, and Tom Pope has been a handful the last few times we have met them so we need to nullify him and their other threats.”
Notts County forward Jon Stead
Man in charge
40 year-old Harry Kewell took over as Notts County manager in late August after the dismissal of Kevin Nolan. Kewell was previously in charge at Crawley Town for just over a year. The Australian has now been in charge of eleven County games.
Blue sky thinking…
So how does our regular OVF Prediction Panel think the game will unfold?
We have their thoughts available to read and it’s fair to say there’s a confidence that Port Vale will prevail on Saturday.
Let’s hope so!
Stats and facts
The two sides have met one hundred and two times with County holding a distinct advantage. Notts have won 46 times compared to Vale’s 36. Vale have a poor recent home record against County having lost their last two games. The last Vale player to score against Notts County was Gavin Tomlin (right) back in 2014.
Featured connection
Former left-back Dan Jones (right) is likely to be the target of the Vale Park terraces. The 31 year-old spent just over a year in a Vale shirt before being sacked after a training ground incident which left skipper Doug Loft with a broken jaw. After a spell with Chesterfield, Jones joined Notts County in 2017.
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