After two successive fixtures at Vale Park, the Valiants hit the road down south to face Wycombe Wanderers at Adams Park.
The Valiants travel to Buckinghamshire on Tuesday for the rearranged fixture, with the match being rescheduled from the original date in September, due to the passing of Her late Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.
The hosts are in a similar situation to Vale, sitting just one place and one point behind us in League One.
Vale carried on their good form at the weekend by beating Lincoln City 1-0 at vale Park, whilst the Chairboys grabbed a point at home to Morecambe.
Here is some interesting pre-match reading before the two sides lock horns on Tuesday night.
Fixture Flashback:
Sky Bet League Two, Vale Park, Saturday 20th October 2012: Port Vale 4-1 Wycombe Wanderers
We travel back to just under a decade ago to Vale’s last win against this weekend’s opponents, a time when Gareth Ainsworth had just taken over as player-manager at the Chairboys.
Valiants legend Tom Pope scored a brace as Vale completed a magnificent turnaround against the ten-men Blues.
Ben Williamson, Pope, and Ashley Vincent scored the goals to complete the comeback for the home side after Joel Grant’s early penalty put the visitors ahead, whilst they also saw Jo Kuffour sent off.
The key moment of the first half saw Wycombe awarded a controversial penalty, which Grant dispatched to give the visitors the lead.
But, just before the break, Wycombe were dealt a major blow when Kuffour was sent his marching orders for a second bookable offence.
It took until the hour-mark for the hosts to equalise, and it came through substitute Williamson, who slotted calmly past Nikki Bull.
Then the ever-prolific Pope got involved and put Vale in front with his fourteenth goal of the season five minutes later, guiding a downwards header past keeper Bull.
Pope then settled the nerves of the home crowd just three minutes from time, scoring another header past Bull, his fifteenth of the campaign, in just October.
Moments later in injury time, Vincent added the icing on the cake when he scored an excellent goal from distance.
The first clear chance came in the eighth minute when Vincent was played through on goal, but Bull made himself big and did well to keep his effort out.
The game started at a fast pace, and Josh Scowen had Wycombe’s first attempt on goal in the 15th minute drilled an effort low from 20 yards which Chris Neal was equal to.
Despite their numerical disadvantage, Wycombe started the second half brightly and Grant was only denied a second by a fine save from Neal.
Vale’s form continued like this match throughout the season, and they secured promotion to the third tier with 78 points in third place.
Port Vale | Neal, Duffy, McCombe, McDonald, Taylor, Myrie-Williams (77’ Lloyd), Murphy (54’ Williamson), Shuker (81’ James), Vincent, Pope, Dodds
Unused Subs | Owen, Davis, Johnson
Wycombe Wanderers | Bull, Foster, Dunne, Johnson, Doherty, Andrade (49’ Spring), Lewis, Scowen (83’ Morias), Grant (68’ McClure), Morgan, Kuffour.
Unused Subs | Ingram, Winfield, Stewart, Ainsworth.
Last Time Out (League):
Sky Bet League One, Adams Park, Saturday 29th October 2022: Wycombe Wanderers 1-1 Morecambe
Wycombe Wanderers had to settle for a point after Adam Mayor’s late strike directly from a corner earnt Morecambe a 1-1 draw at Adams Park.
Chris Forino opened the scoring for the hosts, but they were stunned with minutes left when Mayor’s corner went straight into the back of the net.
The hosts opened the deadlock through the head of Forino when he latched onto a brilliant Gareth McCleary cross to power home with 20 minutes on the clock.
However, the visitors shocked the Adams Park crowd with just eight minutes remaining when Max Stryjek couldn’t quite stop Mayor’s corner from crossing the line.
The Blues had a bright start and nearly doubled their advantage minutes after the opener, but despite Sam Vokes crashing home a header, the goal was disallowed for an infringement in the build-up.
Morecambe then went straight up the other end and came close to levelling the score when the ball broke to Caleb Watts, who couldn’t quite keep his effort on target from close range.
However, Wycombe regained control of the match, and it took a brilliant stop from Connor Ripley to deny Anis Mehmati’s powerful effort from 25 yards out.
After the interval, chances kept coming for both sides, and there was drama in stoppage time when the hosts saw a second goal disallowed in the match.
Wycombe bundled the ball home after chaos in the box, but once again the referee scratched the goal from the scoreboard due to a foul in the scrappy build-up.
The scores ended level after a brilliant game in Buckinghamshire, and now it is the Valiants who will be the next to face Wycombe at Adams Park.
Opposition Team news:
The Chairboys should have a near to fully fit squad for our clash on Tuesday night, with Brandon Hanlan among many other senior players in contention to play after returning from knocks.
Form: WWWLD
15/10/22: Wycombe Wanderers 3-1 Peterborough United, Sky Bet League One
18/10/22: Wycombe Wanderers *1-1 Peterborough United, Papa Johns Trophy
22/10/22: MK Dons 0-1 Wycombe Wanderers, Sky Bet League One
25/10/22: Wycombe Wanderers 2-3 Cambridge United, Sky Bet League One
29/10/22: Wycombe Wanderers 1-1 Morecambe, Sky Bet League One
*Wycombe won 4-3 on penalties