Sam Foley made his return to Port Vale action yesterday after a long stint on the sideline due to injury, as he played 45 minutes in the reserve’s 6-0 demolition over Wrexham.

Also making an appearance in an attempt to gain fitness were Anton Forrester who had recently returned from injury, and new signing Chris Eagles.

It did not take long for Foley to get back into the swing of things as the Vale number 11 was on the end of a Quentin Pereira corner to head home Vale’s second after only 20 minutes.

Foley spoke exclusively to Valiant PlayerHD after the game and expressed his delight to be back on a football pitch: “It is a great feeling to be out on the pitch and involved in a game. It has been 13 weeks of a lot of hard work and resting. It is nice to be there and help the lads.”

He continued: “I said it has been tough seeing the lads play and not being able to contribute, even in and around the training field, so it is good to be back playing. But there is still a lot of hard work to be done to get match fit.”

Foley was only given 45 minutes to ease him back into the physical stresses of competitive football, and is hopeful that his lengthy lay-off does not take it’s toll on his fitness: “I will see how my legs are after today. It was only 45 minutes so it should not be too bad. Hopefully there is no reaction and everything is in order so I will be able to go again from Friday, when we are back in.”

Despite the 30-year olds eagerness to get back playing regular first team football again, he is aware that these things take time and is prepared for the hard work ahead: “Being a footballer you want to play as much as you can and you want to contribute. But if you are not 100%, which is the reason that I had to drop out and have the operation to begin with, you are no use to anyone.

“Until I am 100% I can’t really say I can contribute so I can’t go to Michael and tell him I am ready. We will just have to play it by ear and hopefully in a weeks time we might know more”, he added.