Today, and with apologies for such poor service over the past few weeks, I'm going back exactly 40 years to 1982 and York City's Fourth Division fixture against Port Vale played at Bootham Crescent in front of a crowd of just 1,938. Regular readers will be aware of my scorn for York's programmes from this era, comprising as they did, a single sheet folded over and that with one side of advertising. The fact that they were given away free on the gate as part of the admission fee doesn't disguise the fact that this was an exceptionally poor effort.
I suspect that several readers of this column will be wondering where Port Vale actually is since no town of that name exists in England. According to the club's own website, they were formed in Burslem in the area of Staffordshire known as the Potteries following a meeting at Port Vale House. However, historical research has suggested that it is more likely that the club took it's name from the valley of canal ports on the nearby Trent & Mersey canal. The club became Burslem Port Vale in 1884 and were invited to join the new Football League Second Division in 1892. Technically however that club is no more as it was liquidated in 1907 but the name Port Vale lived on when it was taken on by an ambitious church side in the area. Today's Port Vale club badge carries the date 1876 but, given the liquidation and re-establishment of the club, that is disputed by many.
One interesting fact about Port Vale FC is that they hold the record as the club with the most seasons in the Football League (110) without ever having attained the dizzy heights of the top flight. They are also the club having had the most seasons in the second tier (41) without ever playing in the top tier. That's a quiz question to try out on your mates down the pub next time you go isn't it?
City, under the management of former striker Kevin Randall, and with a few members of the 1984 promotion winning side beginning to assemble (Steve Senior, Derek Hood, Keith Walwyn and Gary Ford), won the game 2-0 with a goal in each half, the first scored by Gary Ford followed by a penalty converted by Derek Hood. Vale's side that day contained a few remarkable names including former Leeds, Stoke City and Manchester United star Jimmy Greenhoff, future England international Mark Chamberlain and, substituting for Greenhoff, Mark's brother Neville Chamberlain (no, not that one). The Chamberlain brothers were sold to Vale's Potteries rivals Stoke City later that same year and they played a handful of First Division games together for Stoke. Amusingly, whilst playing for Port Vale, the Chamberlain brothers would occasionally swap shirts at half time to confuse the opposition markers! Mark is the father of Liverpool's Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and, rather bizarrely, after making his full England debut, guest starred on The Sooty Show. One can only imagine who played as Sweeper that day!
CRB Match No. 152
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