We look ahead to the Vale's first-ever league fixture at Pride Park as Darrell Clarke's side face Derby County on Saturday.
Vale are back on the road this Saturday with a long-awaited trip to Pride Park to face Derby County.
The Rams currently sit in 8th position in the League One table, having won their last two League One matches.
Darrell Clarke’s side are currently sitting in 17th place on 12 points and will be looking to build on a solid start to the campaign against Paul Warne's promotion-chasing Rams.
Here is some interesting pre-match reading before the Valiants travel across to the East Midlands to face the Rams.
The view from Darrell Clarke:
“We want to be winning football games, we want to be a winning team," said Clarke. “The message to the players is that the performances have been good against one or two of the big teams but now we have to turn them into wins, so why not try and start at Derby!
“They have a new manager in Paul Warne, it is his first home game, there will be a great attendance, great away following so let’s see if we can do it tomorrow!”
Port Vale manager Darrell Clarke wants his side to turn performances into wins against the promotion-chasing teams in League One.
Opposition thoughts:
Paul Warne on his first match in the Pride Park Dugout: “I’m really looking forward to it. If I wasn’t, I’d tell you, if I was nervous, I’d tell you. I’m not – I’m really looking forward to it.
“I know it’s not going to be the finished article. I’m not expecting 28,000 or 30,000 people to turn up and go ‘oh this is Paul Warne’s team, let’s go and have a look at it.’
“We’ve trained four or five days, it’s a slow burner but it’s a healthy club that we’re trying to take in the right direction.”
Derby County boss Paul Warne celebrates a win in his first fixture in charge at Cambridge United.
Fixture Flashback:
Championship, Vale Park, Saturday 20th January 1996: Port Vale 1-1 Derby County
Attendance - 11,947
Travelling back 26 years, and Vale were in what is now called the Championship, with the Rams coming across to Vale Park.
Derby came into the fixture at the top of the division after winning 10 of their previous 11 league games.
Vale may only have been 18th at the time, but the side were in good form having won their previous 4 home games.
Moments before half-time, the visitors took the lead through Dean Sturridge, sending large following into raptures.
Vale did get a leveller with 14 minutes to play through Tony Naylor after the pressure had been building throughout the half.
The scores stayed level until the end, and despite Derby County getting promoted to the Premier League at the end of the season, no one would have anticipated it would have taken over 25 years until these two sides clashed again.
The Derby side that day contained our former midfielder Robin Van der Laan, who these days manages Newcastle Town.
Port Vale | Musselwhite, Talbot (Bogie), Hill, Aspin, Tankard, McCarthy, Porter, Walker, Guppy (Griffiths), Foyle, Naylor
Unused subs | L. Mills
Last Time Out (League):
Sky Bet League One, Abbey Stadium, Saturday 1st October 2022: Cambridge United 0-2 Derby County
Life under Paul Warne started well for Derby County, with James Collins’ brace doing the damage as the Rams came away from Cambridge United with a 2-0 win.
On the stroke of half-time, Collins fired Derby in front after Cambridge failed to clear a long ball which then fell to the striker who fired home.
The striker then got his second of the match, sealing the victory, in the 83rd minute through a counter attack when Max Bird played in Collins to slide it past Dimitar Mitov.
County came out of the gates quickly when Nathaniel Mendez-Laing fired just wide of the post for the away side.
The next chance didn’t come until the 34th minute, with the home side being the team to threaten this time around through Jack Lankester who shot wide from a Shilow Tracey corner.
However, four minutes later it was the Rams who went on the offence, and if it wasn’t for Mitov foiling Hourihane’s powerful effort, they would have taken the lead.
Hourihane was then involved again on the hour mark after Tom Barkhuizen’s cross found the Irish international who could only fire his effort into the side netting.
The hosts did push for an equaliser late on before Collins broke to get his and County’s second, ensuring that the away side got their first win on the road this campaign.
James Collins scores for the Rams against Cambridge United last weekend.
Team news:
Derby County's official website reports that midfielder Korey Smith, defender Jake Rooney, Striker William Osula are all back in contention for Saturday, with Smith and Rooney having resumed full training this week after recovering from injuries, and Osula returning after illness.
Star striker and former Valiant, David McGoldrick, has returned to training after injury, but the clash this weekend will come too soon for the seasoned professional.
Goalkeeper Joseph Anang is also still out after injuring his arm back in August.
For the Vale, Darrell Clarke confirmed to the press that Jamie Proctor (hip) remains unavailable, while Funso Ojo (hamstring) is also unavailable.
Form: LLWWD
03/09/22: Derby County 2-3 Plymouth Argyle, Sky Bet League One
13/09/22: Lincoln City 2-0 Derby County, Sky Bet League One
17/09/22: Derby County 2-1 Wycombe Wanderers, Sky Bet League One
01/10/22: Cambridge United 0-2 Derby County, Sky Bet League One
04/10/22: Mansfield Town 1(6)-1(5) Derby County, Papa John’s Trophy