Port Vale League Cup preview

[Sweden Stag]

For the first time since the League Two 2021-22 playoff final, the Stags face Port Vale in any competititon.

Last time out, Vale under Darrell Clarke were the better side on the day and gained promotion in a final watched by the previewer.

Now, a place in the League Cup quarter-finals is at stake. For the Stags, it would be for the first time since the 1975-76 season, and for Port Vale probably the first, Last time Port Vale reached as far as now was in the 2006-07 when they made Tottenham play extra time at their place before the Spurs went through. Vale had previously kayoed Preston, QPR and Norwich respectively before earning the right to face the Spurs.

When the Stags reached the Quarter-finals in the 1975-76, they first made short work of now National League North side Scunthorpe over two legs (6-0 on aggregate, home 4-0,away 2-0), then our forthcoming FA Cup opponents Wrexham at their place to a 2-1 scoreline before two First Division sides were felled by the Stags at home. Five-figure gates at Field Mill saw Coventry beaten 2-0 and then Wolves by the only goal of the game before going out at Maine Road against Manchester City to a 4-2 scoreline.

This is the first ever that the sides clash in the League Cup. The Stags have so far beaten Grimsby to a 2-0 scoreline before dumping out two higher-ranked sides on penalties, Sheffield Wednesday away and Peterborough at home respectively. While the Valiants have disposed of Fleetwood, local rivals Crewe on penalities and Sutton, all at Vale Park, before this round’s fixture at One Call.

Some earlier history about Stags v Port Vale League fixtures over the years:

Due to the midway geographical position of the Stags and Port Vale, the sides played each other in both sections of the old third division up to the 1957-58 campaign. To prove the point in the stats shown below, the teams first met in the old div 3 (N) in the 1936-37 season.Two seasons later, they played each other in the southern section which they also did in the first full league season after the 2nd World War and in that season, Port Vale notched their biggest of total nine wins at Mansfield to a 3-0 scoreline on September 14, 1946. And in the 1952-53 and 1953-54 seasons respectively, the sides faced each other again, but in the northern section. More recently, the teams were promoted together from the old fourth division in 1985-86 and a Stags 2-1 home win just before Christmas 1985 was a start of a winning streak with eight wins out of nine putting the Stags firmly on the promotion trail, the Stags finishing third and Vale fourth in the last season before the introdution of the current play-off system. Both teams have also featured players who when playing in Sweden played for the same Swedish club, IFK Munkfors, but not at the same time. Martin Foyle (later Aldershot, Oxford, Port Vale and also later Port Vale manager) in 1982, Ian Juryeff (who scored four times for Stags in a 7-1-mauling of Halifax in 1984 featured in the vintage Stags section) in 1983. The first meeting between the teams produced a 7-1 win, the Stags biggest one of all time between the sides, on March 27, 1937, to avenge a 5-1 defeat at Port Vale (but not at Vale Park) on November 21, 1936.

And in the 1953-54 season, the Stags were one of only FOUR teams to score at Port Vale when they drew 1-1 on April 5, 1954. The first away win at Port Vale was recorded as a 4-1 on Easter Saturday 1977, which was the first out of eight home and away victories in the memorable promotion run in at the end of the 1976-77 championship season. And before November 2017, the Stags’ latest win at Port Vale happened on Easter Monday, 1989, at the end of that season in which the Stags beat all the teams who were promoted to the old 2nd division, the others being Wolves on April 1, 1989, to a tune of 3-1 at Field Mill, and Sheffield United 2-1 away on April 25, incidentally to the same scoreline as at Port Vale! Not only the 7-1 stuffing way back in 1937 explain the good Stags home goal difference against Vale.

Other maulings at home before the 2020-21 season include the 5-0 with all goals in the first half on January 24, 1981, and the Kevin Kent show in the 4-0 win just before Christmas 1987. No game between the sides at Mansfield has so far finished as a goal-less draw compared to three at Vale Park, all in the 1980’s, the last of those early on in the 1985-86 season in which both sides were promoted together from the Fourth Division.

Port Vale have in the past been FA Cup giant-killers. Semi-finalists in 1953-54, beating Tottenham 2-1 at home in front of many Swedish TV viewers in the fourth round on January 30, 1988, to name just a few. But Vale themselves were also victims of one. In 2007-08, Chasetown became the lowest-ever ranked club to reach the third round, by beating Port Vale 1-0 in the final minute of normal time during a fixture in which Port Vale missed two penalties. One of the Chasetown players, Kyle Perry, was later to be one of quite a few players appearing for both sides (31 games, no goals for Port Vale and 30 games, 9 goals for the Stags). Recently, Perry played for then National League North side Worcester City, themselves FA Cup giant killers by beating Liverpool 2-1 in 1959 and more recently, Coventry away in the first round a few seasons ago.

And following the Tottenham FA Cup KO, Vale had their best FL spell in post-war history. Between 1989-90 and 1999-2000, Vale played nine seasons at current Championship level, managed for almost fifteen years by John Rudge. He oversaw the Vale promotion from Division Four together with the Stags under Ian Greaves in 1985-86 and both promotions to the current Championship as well as the 1987-88 FA Cup run. When Rudge left, Billy Dearden was Vale boss for a few days in January 1999.

Played for both sides: Adnan Ahmed, Calvin Andrew, Colin Askey, Will Atkinson, Thomas Baxter, Malvind Benning, Gary Brazil, Louis Briscoe, Harry Charsley, Darrell Clarke, Lee Collins, Wayne Corden, Colin Daniel, Craig Davies, Syd Dickinson, Dimitar Evtimov, Gary Ford, Exodus Geohaghon, Kenneth Griffiths, Ray Harford, Michael Hopkinson, Kyle Howkins, Alex Iacovitti, Arthur Jepson, Henry Jones, Kevin Kent, Adrian Littlejohn, Neil Mackenzie, John McCombe, Johnny Miller, Ricky Miller, Ernie Moss, Harry Oscroft, Krystian Pearce, Kyle Perry, George Pilkington, Kevin Pilkington, Nicky Platnauer, Gary Pollard, Andy Porter, George Poyser, Jazz Rattray, Gary Roberts, John Rowland, Jake Speight, Freddie Steele, Aidan Stone, Richard Sutton, Will Swan, Allen Tankard, Robert Taylor, Arjan van Heusden, Tyler Walker.

Managed both sides: Freddie Steele (managed the Stags when they reached the 5th round in the FA Cup 1950-51 and Port Vale when they reached the semi-finals three seasons later, then another spell at Port Vale in the early 60’s), Billy Dearden (for four days following the resignation of long-serving John Rudge in January 1999).
Billy Frith has also managed Port Vale, and did so in the 1945-46 season in which no FL games were played.

Stats file for League games:

Home stats: P 27, W 12, D 6, L 9, GF 45, GA 30
Away stats: P 27, W 5, D 9, L 12, GF 32, GA 47

Season Home Date Away Date

1936-37 7-1 1937-03-27 1-5 1936-11-21 Div 3 (N)
1938-39 2-0 1939-01-28 0-3 1938-09-24 Div 3 (S)
1946-47 0-3 1946-09-14 1-4 1947-01-18 Div 3 (S)
1952-53 1-0 1953-03-28 1-1 1952-11-08 Div 3 (N)
1953-54 1-2 1953-08-19 1-1 1954-04-05 Div 3 (N)
1959-60 6-3 1960-04-25 1-4 1959-10-12 Div 3 (old)
1963-64 1-1 1963-09-09 0-1 1963-08-26 Div 3 (old)
1964-65 2-2 1964-09-28 2-2 1964-10-05 Div 3 (old)
1970-71 2-0 1970-09-28 0-2 1971-01-09 Div 3 (old)
1971-72 0-1 1971-11-13 0-1 1972-03-04 Div 3 (old)
1975-76 3-1 1976-01-03 2-2 1976-04-20 Div 3 (old)
1976-77 2-1 1976-12-28 4-1 1977-04-09 Div 3 (old)
1980-81 5-0 1981-01-24 0-0 1980-08-30 Div 4 (old)
1981-82 1-3 1982-02-06 0-0 1981-09-12 Div 4 (old)
1982-83 0-2 1982-09-11 1-4 1983-01-29 Div 4 (old)
1984-85 1-1 1985-03-13 1-0 1984-08-25 Div 4 (old)
1985-86 2-1 1985-12-22 0-0 1985-08-24 Div 4 (old)
1986-87 0-1 1987-01-01 2-3 1987-04-18 Div 3 (old)
1987-88 4-0 1987-12-20 1-1 1988-05-07 Div 3 (old)
1988-89 0-1 1988-12-26 2-1 1989-03-27 Div 3 (old)
1992-93 0-1 1993-04-10 0-3 1993-04-27 Div 2
2002-03 0-1 2003-04-05 2-4 2002-11-30 Div 2
2017-18 1-1 2018-04-21 4-0 2017-11-21 League Two
2018-19 1-0 2018-11-17 1-2 2019-03-09 League Two
2019-20 2-2 2019-12-26 2-2 2019-09-21 League Two
2020-21 4-0 2021-01-02 3-0 2021-05-08 League Two
2021-22 1-1 2021-10-19 1-3 2022-03-15 League Two

FA Cup:

1985-86 1-1 1985-11-16 1st round at Field Mill
1985-86 0-1 1985-11-18 1st round replay at Vale Park

EFL Trophy

2016-17 1-0 2016-10-04 Group stage at Vale Park
2019-20 2-2 2019-12-03 KO stage at Vale Park (Port Vale through on penalties)

Come on Mansfield!

[Staggyfox]

Thanks. Nice synopsis.
I went to both games in the 80/81 season.
Let’s hope for another 5-0.
I remember being disappointed that there were no goals in the 2nd half………1st half in the west stand terrace…then waiting for the nice policeman to let you into the north stand for the second half.
Those were the days