Port Vale are back in action for our first Sky Bet League Two game of the 2020/21 season, as we welcome Crawley Town to Vale Park. You can find all of the key information regarding the game, below.
Fixture: Port Vale vs Crawley Town
Competition: Sky Bet League Two
Date: Saturday 12th September
Kick-Off: 3:00 pm
Venue: Vale Park
Referee: Sam Allison
Port Vale
Manager: John Askey
Form: WD
Top Goal Scorer: Zak Mills & Theo Robinson (1 Goal)
The Valiants will be hoping to kick off our league campaign with a bang, following a successful week which has included a win at Scunthorpe United in the first round of the Carabao Cup and a penalty shoot-out success over Tranmere Rovers, which secured two points for in our EFL Trophy group-stage opener.
We only took on Crawley once last season, where we secured a point in a 0-0 stalemate at the Broadfield Stadium in November 2019. We were due to play the Red Devils in March of this year, but the suspension of football across England meant that the game was never able to take place.
The Gaffer will have a strong squad at his disposal for this clash, with Manny Oyeleke and Cristian Montano both getting 45 minutes in Tuesday’s EFL Trophy clash with Tranmere, though James Gibbons is still ruled out of action for the league opener.
We’re aware of Crawley and the dangers they can cause you, but at the end of the day it’s what we do and that’s all we’re interested in.
John Askey, Port Vale Manager
Crawley Town
Manager: John Yems
Form: LL
Top Goal Scorer: Sam Ashford & Nathan Ferguson (1 Goal)
Crawley will be hoping for a positive start to their league campaign, after their first two competitive games of the season have ended in defeats in the Carabao Cup and EFL Trophy group-stage.
The early curtailment of the Sky Bet League Two campaign last season meant that John Yems’ side finished 13th in the league table last time round, but they will fancy themselves to build on that position and perhaps push for a position in play-offs.
John Yems has signed nine players for the Red Devils this season, including the returning loan signing of Brighton goalkeeper Tom McGill and the experienced Bristol Rovers defender Tony Craig.
One to watch: Jordan Tunnicliffe
The Nuneaton born defender will look to continue achievement of having played the most minutes out of anyone in the Crawley squad last season, as well as only receiving two yellow cards all campaign.
Tunnicliffe started his youth career at West Bromwich Albion, before moving to the Nike Academy where he continued his development.
He has since had spells at Barnsley, Sutton Coldfield Town, Kidderminster Harriers, and AFC Fylde.
He moved to current side Crawley in July 2019, where he has made a strong impression with the Red Devils faithful.
Talk:
John Askey: “We treated the games against Scunthorpe and Tranmere as pre-season, and they went quite well. We’ve got everybody fit and we’re just looking forward to the start of the season now.”
John Yems: “If we keep playing like the way we did like we did on Tuesday, we will start to win games.”
Coverage:
iFollow The Vale will be providing full 90-minute coverage of the match for all domestic supporters, whilst the Port Vale Twitter and Facebook feeds will be providing live updates for the entirety.
To purchase an iFollow match pass click here.
There will also be the build-up to the game with the official Snapchat and Instagram accounts: @officialpvfc
Reaction will be available on the website post-match, as well as on YouTube, iFollow and our official social media channels.