We welcome Tranmere Rovers to Vale Park on Saturday for our first home fixture of the 2024/25 season.
Yes, the season 'technically' started last Saturday when our Skipper, Ben Garrity scored either side of half time to help The Valiants to a 2-0 win against Salford City at the Peninsula Stadium, but we all know it hasn't really started until we watch the Vale at Vale Park.
With a healthy number of visiting supporters expected to be making the trip down from Birkenhead, It's looking like we're in for a good one in ST6.
Gaffers thoughts:
Here’s what Darren Moore had to say ahead of Saturday’s fixture:
“We’ve got our first home game of the season. It was a wonderful start last week at Salford. There’s a lot of hope and a lot of impetuous in the football club at the moment and it’s great that the fans are feeling that.”
“We’re really looking forward to seeing all the supporters here at Vale Park on Saturday, it bodes well for a really, really good game. Tranmere have started the season solid as well, They can be difficult opponents which we know. But we’ve started the season well, we come through pre-season solidly. We’ve got our first home game, in front of our passionate supporters and we know we have to take the game to them”
The Opposition
Tranmere come into Saturday’s game off the back of a comfortable win in the Carabao Cup on midweek. Rovers beat Accrington Stanley 3-0 at Prenton Park thanks to goals from Harvey Saunders, Josh Williams & Omari Patrick.
In the league, Tranmere opened their campaign with a 0-0 draw against Notts County at Prenton Park.
Who’s In charge?
Nigel Adkins is the manager of Tranmere Rovers. The 59 year old took over the reins in September 2023 after the sacking of Ian Dawes.
Adkins’ football career began at Tranmere Rovers in 1983 where he played 86 times for The Super White Army. Since then Adkins has managed in the Premier League with Southampton and Reading and also helped Scunthorpe to three promotions in a what has been a successful managerial career so far.
Since Adkins’ return to Prenton Park, he has managed 44 games where he has picked up 17 wins, 19 losses and 8 draws.
Player to watch - Josh Davison
The 24 year old striker joined Tranmere in the summer after leaving Wimbledon. He’s made over 150 EFL appearances, scoring 36 goals along the way. His most prolific season came in 2021/22 when he scored nine goals in 24 games for Swindon Town, helping them to a play off spot. However, they were eventually beaten in the semi-finals by The Valiants. Notably, Davison missed the penalty that could have booked his side a place at Wembley in the play-off final.
A player who suffered contrasting emotions that night was Brad Walker. The former Valiant was part of our 2021/22 play-off winning squad.
Walker left Vale Park in January 2023 to join Tranmere Rovers where he has since played 32 games. He has played every minute of Tranmere’s two games so far and has kept two clean sheets at centre back. I
n midweek, he had a great opportunity to score his first goal for the club, but he had a penalty saved in his sides 3-0 win against Accrington Stanley.
Last time we met
Tranmere Rovers 1-1 Port Vale, Saturday 19th February 2022.
The last time the sides met was back in 2022 when the Valiants were pushing for promotion out of Sky Bet League Two.
Josh Hawkes opened the scoring for the hosts on the hour mark when he found space down the left and slotted past the onrushing Thomas Holy.
As the clock ticked down it looked like The Valiants were going to leave empty handed. However, Vale kept pushing for a leveller and were finally rewarded in the 94th minute. James Gibbons and James Wilson linked up well down the right before Gibbons sent in a deep cross that was met by Jamie Proctor who thundered a header into the back of the net from close range level the scores in the most dramatic fashion.