About the onevalefan website

The essentials

Who operates onevalefan?

Site founder and editor Rob Fielding produces most of the written articles and features on the site. Barry Edge has also contributed memoirs and poems. A team of volunteers moderate the busy forum.

What is onevalefan?

Founded in 1995 by one exiled fan, Rob Fielding, award-winning onevalefan is now the busiest Port Vale fan site in the world. It was originally called “There’s only one Vale fan in Bristol?” in a plea for fellow exiles to get in touch. When Rob left Bristol, he decided to keep just the “onevalefan” part of the name.

This amazing artwork (photo) detailing the history of OVF was made by renowned artist Paine Proffitt

The site was voted the “fans site of the year” in 2000 by the Footy 51 fanzine,  came second in the football-shirts.co.uk nationwide fans awards for 2005 and won site of the year in the 2014 Six Towns Radio awards. OVF is proud to say that it is an editorially independent Port Vale FC website.

Who do you support?

We supported the Help for Heroes campaign and arranged a surprise treat for two Vale fans who had returned from Afghanistan. They were made guests of honour for a game in 2013 (photo).

We support the work of many Port Vale organisations including Valiants Against Racism (for whom we provided website assistance and hosting) and we supported the Sproson Fund (to build the statue of Roy Sproson) for many years. We have two chosen charities – the Donna Louise Trust and the Douglas MacMillan Hospice and have donated hundreds of pounds to both.

We backed the Supporters’ Club in their fight to replace  the board in 2012. Our prize draw raised over £800 for the Club’s fighting fund. We have also sponsored three Lorne Street suites (named in honour of Vale legends Darren Hughes, Dickie Cunliffe and Andy Jones).

In essence, we feel that OVF has a moral duty to represent the best interests of Port Vale fans and in recent years we have backed protest groups seeking a new board in charge of the club. OVF will continue to back fans’ interests as long as they are conducted peacefully and legally.

Fair enough, but what do you actually do to help Port Vale FC?

The actual income generated for the club by onevalefan.co.uk stands at over £35,000 and includes:

• Over £12,000 in match sponsorship fees
• £500 raised for youth team development
• Over £21,000 raised from OVF competitions such as “Guess the Gate” and “10,000 poster” (all prizes sourced from the club shop)

Other events that have benefited the club include:

• Match-day visits by former Vale legends – Andy Jones, Darren Hughes and Peter Swan
• Sponsorship of three executive boxes
• A book-signing by Peter Swan at the club shop
• Large-scale promotion of the “5,000” season ticket offer and other club-related promotion
• The construction of “Vale Volunteers” and “Vale Supporters Club” sections on the forum

Award-winning? How on earth did you pull that off?

We’re delighted to be the Winner, fans’ site of the year, in the Footy 51 fanzine awards, 2000. Five years later we were runners-up as football site of the year, hosted by football-shirts.co.uk Finally, in 2014, we were voted website of the year in the 6 Towns Radio (a North Staffordshire community radio) awards.

What else have you done?

Running OVF has spawned many parallel activities. In 2014, Rob Fielding curated the Vale Vaults exhibition – the first-ever fans-operated free exhibition of Port Vale memorabilia. In 2013, he wrote his first book “No Ordinary Season” about that season’s astonishing promotion. OVF has also produced mugs, mousemats and posters – many of which have raised money for our two chosen charities – the Donna Louise Trust and the Douglas Macmillan Hospice.

What do people and the press think?

We’ve been lucky enough to receive notes from a number of Vale legends and some praise from other websites. Flatter our egos and read the comments on this page

Thanks to

We would like to thank everyone who has helped OVF over the years. This includes the moderation team, all contributors (of features and photos), people who have sent us positive comments and of course our valuable financial contributors who have helped us meet our hosting costs. If we’ve forgotten anyone, please forgive us!

A special mention must go to Barry Edge, who has given so much help (in many ways) to this site over the years. Without Barry’s assistance and positivity, we do not think OVF would exist today. Our thanks to Barry and his family for his invaluable support.

We’re lucky to have received many photos and images over the years so a big thank you to everyone who has contributed. A special thanks to Alex Steventon and AS Photos for providing many of the current photos used on this site as well as Gerard Austin (ActionFreeze images) and Paul Humphreys for many other photos.

We dearly miss administrator Pete Tindall who contributed so much to OVF before he sadly passed away in 2013. Pete was a fantastic and hugely popular person and OVF is the poorer for his passing.