Fulham give youngster the nod to play on

With the current injury situation and defender Carl Dickinson ruled out of Saturday’s FA Cup tie against Brighton & Hove Albion, it isn’t all doom and gloom around Vale Park.

The club have been boosted by the news that Fulham have given permission for on loan defender Jack Grimmer to play in the FA Cup and he will be available for selection on Saturday.

Grimmer impressed in his debut against League One leaders Brentford just over a week ago and was voted Vale’s man of the Match against Oldham Athletic on Saturday.

To add to that he scored the only goal of the game – his first in senior football, and looked a terrific addition to the Vale team.

Although the player himself was always hopeful, the concern was that his parent club wouldn’t want him cup-tied.

Vale Assistant Manager Mark Grew said: the young Scot cup-tied, so Vale are most grateful to Fulham.

“We have got to thank Fulham on this one because they have given Jack the go ahead to play on Saturday and that is a major plus for us, so we owe a big thank you to Fulham and their manager on that one.

“Anybody who watched the game against Brentford recently would have seen that Jack competed well and didn’t look out of place at centre half.

“He came in on Saturday against Oldham and played at right full back and I thought he did exceptionally well there.

“It is nice to have a player come in from Fulham who just wants to play football.

"He was desperate to ask Fulham if he could play in this Cup game and that shows how eager he is to play.”

Vale await verdicts on Gavin Tomlin, who has resumed training, and both Rob Taylor and Daniel Jones who have a slim chance of being fit for the weekend.