Port Vale
After upsetting most of Grimsby yesterday, today we move up another place in our L2 predictions and to 20th. Today's bile will be that of Port Vale...Last Season
Last year Vale were utterly hopeless in the main, even finding themselves comprehensively battered twice by Ian McParland's hardly free-scoring Magpies. Lee Sinnott started the season in charge at Vale Park and was harshly sacked with the club in lower mid-table, much to the dismay of a number of fans. In came Dean Glover, cue more dismay from the Vale Park crowd and their season descended into something of a farce.
Marc Richards, their only source of goals after they decided to release Luke Rodgers, couldn't keep himself fit and their defence collapsed under the lightest pressure. Lee Collins and John McCombe should both be solid for this level, but it hardly shows in Vale's defensive record last year. Meanwhile their midfield didn't appear to exist at all, so much so that they ended the season with Dave Brammer running the show. A man who appeared unable to move when they lost 4-2 at Meadow Lane. They also seemed to concede lots to Jamie Forrester, a truly impressive feat.
The Manager
Micky Adams, the man who looks to have a good record on paper at this level, is the new gaffer at Vale Park. That was ever such a long time ago, though. He started his career at Fulham where he was impressive until Mohammed Al Fayed decided he wasn't famous enough to take the club forward. He had largely uneventful spells at Swansea City, Brentford and Nottingham Forest before moving on to Brighton & Hove Albion where he lead the Seagulls to promotion before leaving to assistant manager Leicester City.
Presumably he assumed that working under Dave Bassett meant it wouldn't be long before his shot at management at the Foxes came, and with the club cheating their way out of £30m worth of debt and administration he lead them back to the Premiership at the first attempt. He was unable to keep Leicester in the Premiership though and he left after a poor start to the next campaign, and his career had begun the slippery slide downhill.
He moved to Coventry City where he lead them to 8th in his first half-season at the club before things went wrong again for Adams and he was sacked with the club struggling in the lower reaches of the Championship. Next up was a return to Brighton, but despite being financially backed with one of the biggest budgets in the division and a squad which looked talented on paper Adams somehow managed to lead the Seagulls to the brink of relegation, before Russell Slade strolled in to save the situation. So yes, Vale's new saviour hasn't done much of any note in quite a while.
The Squad
Awful, really, and worryingly for the Valiants chairman Bill Bratt insists that the club have used up their playing budget for the coming season. They've managed to bring in solid if unspectacular right back Adam Yates, to replace solid if unspectacular right back Sam Stockley. Meanwhile Adams has raided Brighton reserves to bring in midfielders Doug Loft and Tommy Fraser, but they will have to be impressively bad to be worse than Anthony Griffith and David Howland.
John McCombe, Gareth Owen and Lee Collins complete a solid looking defence for Vale which should ensure that they don't get dragged into any serious relegation trouble, but they are another team where we don't see where the goals will come from. Marc Richards can only stay fit for long enough to score 10 goals at the most while the likes of Louis Dodds and Danny Glover will struggle to hit 10 between them.
Prediction
The appointment of a 'name' manager may have encouraged some optimism at Vale Park, but at the end of their day their squad is the same one that was so hopeless last season, give or take a couple of Brighton reserves. If Marc Richards manages to stay fit for more than half a season then they stand a chance of doing a bit better, but I wouldn't bet on it.
20th
