Tomorrow the Valiants will aim to pick up their second away win on the bounce and collect another three points as they travel to Gresty Road to take on local rivals Crewe. With the trip just a day away, we look back on two classic matches that the Vale have played against the Alex.
League Cup 1st Round, Gresty Road, Tuesday 3rd September 1996: Crewe Alexandra 1-5 Port Vale
At the time, the first round of the League Cup was a two legged affair and in the first-leg at Vale Park, the Valiants secured a 1-0 win, but in the second-leg Crewe levelled the score on aggregate in the 16th minute when Dele Adebola thumped the ball home from the edge of the box.
Vale were able to regain their aggregate lead just 10 minutes later as a long ball found Ian Bogie who spun towards goal and unleashed a low driven effort from 20-yards outs past Mark Gayle, making it 1-1 on the night.
With 34 minutes on the clock the Vale took the lead, with Dean Glover laying the ball back to Jon McCarthy whose snap shot from 30-yards caught out Gayle, leaving a Crewe side featuring Robbie Savage and Danny Murphy 3-1 down on aggregate.
The Vale remained in control after the goal and rattled in three more in the last quarter of an hour, starting with a Martin Foyle header from a Steve Guppy cross in the 75th minute.
With six minutes to play Dean Glover turned provider as he laid the ball into Tony Naylor, who beat his man before placing the ball into the net against his former side, before Lee Mills wrapped up the scoring just one minute later, slotting the ball away from a Jon McCarthy cross.
Crewe – Gayle, Smith, Macauley, Unsworth, Westwood, Tierney (Garvey 70), Murphy, Rivers (Launders 79), Savage, Whalley, Adebola
Sub not used – Billing
Port Vale – Van Heusden, Aspin, Griffiths, Glover, Tankard (Talbot 57), McCarthy, Porter, Bogie, Guppy, Foyle (Mills 78), Naylor
Sub not used – Musselwhite
Att. – 4,471
League One, Gresty Road, Tuesday 11th March 2008: Crewe Alexandra 0-2 Port Vale
Vale entered the fixture sat at the bottom of the League One table, having failed to pick up a win for 10 games under manager Lee Sinnott.
The game was a tense affair and did not come to life until the second-half when Paul Harsley put the Vale in the lead from the penalty spot in the 57th minute.
Vale were able to hold onto their lead and made sure they secured all three points with nine minutes left on the clock, when Luke Rodgers gleefully drilled the ball into the Crewe net, Crewe once again seeing a former player come back to haunt them in a Vale shirt.
Crewe – Williams, Abbey, O’Donnell, Boyle, McCready, Schumacher (Roberts 76), Lunt, O’Connor, Morgan (Moore 77), Pope, Anyinsah (Maynard 46)
Subs not used – Woodards, Fon-Williams
Port Vale – Anyon, Harsley, Pilkington, Pearce, Talbot, Herd, Whitaker, Howland, Hulbert, Rodgers, Richards (Perry 76)
Subs not used – McGregor, Edwards, Lawrie, Glover
Att. – 5,229