Chislett is the hero as Valiants bring an end to weekend hoodoo

PORT Vale managed to achieve a rare feat when they saw off the challenge of Chesterfield. CLIVE YOULTON continues his review of the Valiants’ season...

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INE months and counting. That was the length of time Port Vale fans had gone without seeing their team win at home ona Saturday.

‘The last occasion had come against Wigan Athletic on December 16 the previous year.

Two other victories at home had followed - both coming on Fridays, against Blackpool (December 29) and Bristol Rovers (March 29).

Here we were ahead of the club's clash with Chesterfield on September 14.

Mark Porter, chairman of the supporters’ club, was desperate for the sequence to be broken.

“T think it’s a really bad statistic to have,” he lamented. “It’s probably a record. A whole gestation period of no home wins on a Saturday.

“But we are now in a position where we have to make some big decisions and try to push on, starting against Chesterfield.”

On the long-term forecast, as far as Porter was concerned, it was bright and he enthused: “I said we will score goals this season and we are. There is an air of optimism. But there’s a lot of frustration too and that comes when you are expecting to do well but don’t. I think we've got some really good quality individual players that when they gel, will see us push on”

BBC Stoke's Phil Bowers had a complaint of another sort.

He believed Vale had too many players.

Like everyone else, Bowers expressed his surprise that longservant Nathan Smith wasn’t involved at Newport County having played in the EFL Trophy the game before.