Match Report | Port Vale 2-2 Rushall Olympic

Bycars

The Valiants continued their pre-season preparations this evening with a 2-2 draw against Rushall Olympic in a behind-closed-doors friendly.

Rushall took an early lead in the tenth minute as a loose header back to Connor Ripley was capitalised on by the Olympic forward who placed his effort into the bottom corner to give the visitors the lead.

Vale looked to hit back eight minutes later as Hart whipped in a ball from the left onto the head of Garrity, but his header looped wide of the Rushall goal.

Darren Moore's side began to pile on the pressure and in the 21st minute, they almost found an equaliser as Sang's out-swinging corner was met by the head of Jayden Stockley who saw his header well saved by the visiting goalkeeper.

In a half largely dominated by Vale, the visitors looked to add to double their lead on the counter attack as a dangerous ball came in from the right and was headed goal-bound by the Rushall striker, only to be denied by an outstanding save from Ripley, diving away to his left.

On the stroke of half time, Vale were left wondering how they weren't level as another dangerous Sang cross picked out Garrity, who saw his sliding effort clip the crossbar as the referee blew for half time.

Half Time: Port Vale 0-1 Rushall Olympic

Vale made ten changes at the break and it only took four minutes of the second half for Darren Moore's side to equalise as Tolaj cut inside from the right to fire under the goalkeeper and into the back of the net.

Tolaj attempted to add to his tally minutes later as he met Curtis' corner with an acrobatic effort at the back post which sailed well over the visitors' crossbar.

The Valiants took a deserved lead in the 65th minute as Curtis played in Dipepa with a beautiful outside-of-the-foot pass, who then cut back to square the ball to the trialist who scored from point-blank range.

Rushall were awarded a free kick late on in the second half and they almost took full advantage as the cross from the free kick evaded everybody in the box and hit the post before being cleared by the Vale defence.

Vale almost added a third to their tally as Conor Grant played in Dipepa with a deft left-footed through ball, who then set up Tolaj on the edge of the area, but he narrowly fired over.

Rushall gained an equaliser in the dying embers of the game as a long ball from the defence was well brought down by the winger on their left-hand side, who then cut inside to fire across Ripley and into the back of the net to bring his team level.

Full Time: Port Vale 2-2 Rushall Olympic

First Half XI

Connor Ripley, Tom Sang, Sam Hart, Jason Lowe, Connor Hall, Nathan Smith, James Plant, Funso Ojo, Jayden Stockley, Ben Garrity, Trialist

Second Half XI

Connor Ripley, Mitch Clark (56' Plant), Deklan Wynne, Ryan Croasdale, Jesse Debrah, Dan Jones, Ronan Curtis, Conor Grant, Baylee Dipepa, Lorent Tolaj, Trialist (70' Cousins)