Fixture – Leeds United vs Port Vale
Date – 9th August 2017
Venue – Elland Road
Preview
Port Vale manager, Michael Brown, will be looking his side can cause an upset tonight as they are on the road again, against his former team; Leeds United.
Brown played for the Whites before joining Vale as a player back in 2014. He will return to his former club for the first time in the first round of the Carabao Cup.
After impressing on the opening day of the season against Crawley Town, the Valiants will be looking to book their place into the next round, if they can get past the Championship side.
The Opposition
Leeds will be looking to build on their performance from last season as they finished 7th in the Championship – just one position from a play-off position.
A cup run will also be a high priority for manager, Thomas Christiansen, who is currently enjoying his first spell in England as a manager. A finish in the play-off places is sought after by the Whites’ faithful as they continue their push to be back in the Premier League.
Over the summer, Leeds have brought in six new players with more likely to be signed over the course of the next couple of weeks.
This meeting will be the first meeting between the two sides since March 2008 where Vale entertained their League One counterparts which resulted in a 3-3 draw.
Talk
Michael Brown:
"It's a fantastic game for myself personally and for the football club to go and test ourselves. There will be 20,000 there, it's a great game and we are all looking forward to it."
Kalvin Philips (Leeds United midfielder):
“It’s really important. Last year we got to go to Anfield and that lifted the lads’ spirit. Hopefully we can get as far as possible.”
Team News
Vale could be without Cristian Montano who came off against Crawley with a suspected injury. He would join Tyrone Barnett and Kjell Knops who remain on the sidelines.
There will be concerns over the fitness of Matthew Pennington and Gaetano Berardi who both came off against Bolton this past weekend.
Coverage
iFollow the Vale will be providing full 90-minute commentary from the match, while the Port Vale Twitter feed will be providing live updates for the entirety.
There will also be build-up to the game with the official Snapchat account: officialpvfc.
Reaction will be available on the official website post-match, as well as on YouTube, iFollow and social media.