Shanahan: Capturing history in new kits is the ideal celebration

PATRICK Shanahan has explained his thinking behind the new Port Vale away kit which has gone down a storm with supporters.

- Clive Youlton

Responsible for operations strategy and kit design at Vale Park, the son of owners Carol and Kevin, spoke to BBC Radio Stoke about the away kit.

Shanahan said: “The design came from looking back at the 150 years of Port Vale and I really liked what we did with the home kit when we cherry picked the most successful season in the club's history when we had that amazing defensive record.

“Because that was one of the most successful seasons and best defensive record it was then looking at what was the best attacking record that we had.

“And it was the 1958/59 season where we scored 110 goals and were promoted from the Fourth Division and I just thought it worked really well for that season.

“Because the home kit was this with the amber and black stripes and their shorts were black, we couldn't do that due to the clash with the home kit.

“And it felt like that was a lovely way to celebrate two incredible seasons with the club where Vale showed the world how good they can be, If we can go and replicate that in our season with the best attacking and defensive records then we will probably have a very good season.”