Port Vale travel to Scunthorpe United this afternoon with John Askey’s side looking to make it four away wins in a row in all competitions. Three points this afternoon could see the Valiants move into the top seven of the Sky Bet League Two table. You can find all of the key information regarding the game, below.
Fixture: Scunthorpe United v Port Vale
Competition: Sky Bet League Two
Date: Saturday 23rd November 2019
Kick-Off: 3:00 pm
Venue: Glanford Park
Referee: James Oldham
Port Vale
Manager: John Askey
Form: DWDWW
Top Goal Scorer: Richie Bennett (4 goals)
Port Vale will undoubtedly be heading to Lincolnshire full of confidence this afternoon after they made it five wins in six against Carlisle United on Saturday. Askey’s men can jump into a play-off place if they can beat a struggling Scunthorpe side this afternoon.
It took the Valiants until late October to secure their first away league win of the campaign, they have now won their last three away from home in all competitions, including wins against League One side MK Dons in the FA Cup, and rivals Crewe Alexandra.
Tom Conlon featured for the reserves earlier this week against West Brom so may be in contention. Adam Crookes and Emmanuel Oyeleke remain sidelined through injury. Tom Pope will be unavailable through suspension.
"We're keeping our feet very much on the ground, we're working as hard as we can, we're not looking too far ahead and we will try to keep doing what we've been doing."
Danny Pugh, Port Vale First Team Coach
Scunthorpe United
Manager: Paul Hurst
Form: LWDDW
Top Goal Scorer: Lee Novak (6 goals)
Scunthorpe were relegated from League One last term and have not quite started life in League Two as many were expecting. They currently reside in 19th place in the division, having won just four of their 18 league fixtures so far this term.
Despite their place in the league, the Irons have won three of their last four at home in all competitions and have only tasted defeat at Glanford Park once since mid-September. Their impressive form at home of late include victories against promotion-chasing Northampton Town and Exeter City.
Paul Hurst still has some injury problems coming into this one however, the latest absentee is Junior Brown who is on loan from Coventry, he is set to miss out for up to three weeks. Ryan Colclough will also miss this afternoon’s clash through illness. The Irons are also still without Yann Songo’o, Jordan Hallam, Ryan Sutton and Jamie Ward.
One to Watch: Lee Novak
Lee Novak is Scunthorpe’s top scorer so far this season with six in all competitions and is currently enjoying his best run of the season with three in his last two.
Novak made his football league debut just over ten years ago with Huddersfield Town, making just shy of 150 league appearances for the Terriers as well as helping the club to achieve promotion to the Championship in 2013.
The 31-year-old then moved to Birmingham City during the summer of that year, before then going onto play for Chesterfield and Charlton Athletic. Novak signed for the Irons in 2017.
Talk
Danny Pugh: “They’re [Scunthorpe] a decent team, they’ve got a good manager and some good players so it will be another big test for us, every game in this league is a difficult, difficult game and this will be no different."
Paul Hurst: “They’ve [Vale] had the same record as us in the last six weeks, and beat Carlisle last time out, after Crewe away from home before that, so they’ll be in confident mood coming here.”
Coverage:
iFollow The Vale will be providing full 90-minute commentary from the match, whilst the Port Vale Twitter and Facebook feeds will be providing live updates for the entirety.
There will also be the build-up to the game with the official Snapchat and Instagram accounts: officialpvfc
Reaction will be available on the official website post-match, as well as on YouTube, iFollow and social media.