Up the M6 again vs Port Vale (L2)

After last week's journey up to Stockport, it was time to revisit the delights of the M1 and the M6 and make the trip to Burslem to see the Us take on Port Vale.

There are many many things I don't understand about life. One of them is why people might be willing to pay the M6 toll (£4.80 at the weekend) when the non-toll version of the same road is likely to be running freely. Like at the weekend for example. I know that there might be some sort of jam, but since I like to live dangerously I decided to take the risk. As predicted, the road was clear and I sailed through. For those of you who don't know where Burslem is, it's near Stoke. Very near Stoke. Maybe even a suburb of Stoke. But I'm sure that any Vale fans who see this would prefer to ignore that, so let's settle for 'near'. You do drive past the Stoke City Brittania Stadium on the way, sponsored by the Brittania Building Society (or is it now a bank?).

Getting off the motorway and heading into Burslem, it is frankly a bit depressing to see how run down the area is. Stockport was a bit shabby, but the outskirts of Burslem look a thousand times worse - like all the shopkeepers have frankly just given up. More than 50% of the shops are shuttered up, or even permanently boarded up with Chipboard nailed over the doors and windows. By the look of the condition of the shopfronts and even the boards, they had been like that for some years. Shouldn't think that David Cameron's policies are going to do anyone who lives around there any good. They have my sympathies.

Matchday Parking - £4. Alluring. But at least very close to the stadium. After seeing the amazing amount of police both around the stadium and on the drive in through Burslem town centre it was obvious that they were expecting trouble, so maybe spending four quid and being close was a better idea than saving the money and wandering about the streets afterwards trying to remember where I'd parked the motor! I sat in the car eating my lunch, listening to Birmingham play Bolton in the FA Cup before getting bored with it. Luckily, who should wander across the car park at that very moment than Lincoln Yellow and his son, Leicester Yellow and a chap I didn't recognise, but who turned out to be YellowHoods. Nice. Introductions were made, hands were shaken and we all made our way into the stadium.

Vale Park is a decent stadium. We were in the South Stand behind the goal, to the right, with the left hand side netted off. It's a single story stand, as is the West Stand and the North Stand behind the other goal. The larger East stand is a bit odd, in that they haven't bothered (or can't afford) to install steats in on half of the lower tier of that stand. Apart from about fifteen seats or so. We joked that those seats were for the Vale fans who had problems with personal hygiene! The East Stand also seems to be called (according to the sign on the front), 'The Stand'. Hmm. Then you realise that there used to be something in between The and Stand, presumably the name of an ex-sponsor who hasn't been replaced. Hard times at Vale Park. There is also a family stand tucked in the corner between the West and North stands.

There are a couple of other things about the ground. Firstly, they have a super animated scoreboard. Very big and very flash. Unfortunately for away supporters, they've hung it from the inside roof of the away stand. That means that nobody from the away support can see it apart from those right at the front of the stand, and even then, they'd have to twist around. Even worse it restricts the view of those in the back of the away stand. Nice scoreboard, but badly thought out. The other thing is that the more vocal home support congregates at the south end off the West stand (closest to the away supporters) which makes for lots of gesturing and singing between the sets of fans. Quite good fun, although it looked as if some of the Vale fans were taking it a bit too seriously.

The teams were announced. After three successive defeats, surely CW had to make changes? Yes. We all sighed with something like relief. But when he makes changes, he really goes for it. Out of the starting lineup were the suspended Tonkin, Batt, Hall, Heslop, Craddock, Beano and MacLean. Blimey. Craddock (the only striker to actually score recently) didn't even make the bench. In came Pukiss and Kinniborough at fullback (Purks had to play, to run off last weeks chips :) ) to partner Worley and Wright at the back. Midfield was Hackney, McLaren, Payne and Clist, with our favourite Spitfire pilot Jack Midson up front with `Ole` Elfie Potter. Very brave team selection. The Vale team featured ex-U, Mr Orange - Lewis Haldane.

On a fashion note - we wore the blue way kit. Pah. On another fashion note I had forgiven my plain yellow shirt, last year's kit. If you remember (and there's no reason why you should) I had worn it for four matches consecutivly where we had won 2-1. After losing to Northampton by the same score it had been slung in the washing basket until it repented (and was washed). I reckoned it was time to give it another go, and was confidently expecting the score to be 2-1, preferably to us!

The match started with us playing away from our supporters. Port Vale had the best of the opening exchanges, without really looking dangerous. They tried to probe down the wings although they had made their pitch very narrow. Maybe a wider pitch would have helped this master plan. Whatever the reason, Purkiss (who is better defensively than Batt) and Kinniborough gave them a hard time trying to do this. MacLaren mistimed a tackle and got a yellow card. Probably fair enough. A couple of crosses failed to find their mark, being wildly overhit. Then within a few minutes, Jack Midson had two similar chances - both from the left hand side of the penalty area and both missed the far post. He really should have made the keeper make a save at least. We all looked at each other, hoping that we hadn't just squandered the best opportunities we would have. The ref then started getting a bit whistle happy, although Kinniborough's yellow card for tripping Tango Haldane was the correct decision. We were being pushed back as the half went on, Clarke making a decent tip over from a Valiant's free kick. I'm not sure it was actually going in - but better safe than sorry.

After 25 minutes, Port Vale were awarded a penalty. Purkiss pushed a Vale striker in the back, the player stumbled over. The ref had seen it and awarded the pen. A soft one, but no real complaints about it. Marc Richards stepped up and whacked it. But of course Ryan Clarke is no mug when it comes to saving penalties and he got across the goal line and got his body in the way. Brilliant. Except that (in what seemed like slow motion as I watched), it rebounded straight into the strikers path, and he gratefully made up for missing the penalty by sticking it in the back of the net. We'd had two decent chances and had been at least the equal of Vale for much of the half, but were now a goal down.

The 600 or so Oxford fans got behind their team. One of the features of this season (especially away) is that the supporters have been well, supportive. The team goes behind, we try to get them going. No booing, a bit of moaning (but quietly!) and a hell of a lot of vocal support. Makes you proud.

The goal had also sparked the Vale supporters into what passes for life in Burslem. 'Sing when you're winning, you only sing when you're winning'. Whether it was the accoustics I don't know, but even though the vocal Vale supporters were quite close, they were very very quiet. They managed a bit of noise once they scored.

Payne smacked one over the bar, but the next incident of note lead to our equalising goal. Alfie Potter (a man of undoubted ability but sometimes a lack of confidence in it) took responsibity and thumped a smashing dipping shot on target toward the Vale goal. Their keeper flailed at it like a dememnted scarecrow and only succeeded in pushing it onto the bar. It fell nicely for Midson, who reacted quickly and made up for his earlier misses with an opportunist goal. The Vale fans went back to their rather sullen silence, the away end erupted! There were a couple of dodgy moments in both penalty areas, but we got to half time with honours even.

Half time. Port Vale (like Chesterfield) can't provide black coffee. I'd had a white one before the start of the match. They had seemed badly prepared for a decent away following, the bloke in front of me had bought the last hot dog about 20 minutes before kickoff, and they had obviously employed the minimum number of minimum wage employees possible to serve behind the wire mesh fronted catering counters - leading to long queues. I decided once was enough and didn't bother trying again at half time.

The second half started with Port Vale making one of the more unusual substitutions you'll see, swapping goalkeepers. Presumably the original keeper was injured, but Tomlinson came on to replace him whatever the reason. Oxford were now on the front foot, as thay had been for some of the latter period of the first half. Two Vale defenders sandwiched Alfie in the area. We all howled for a penalty of course, even though we knew it wasn't one! Both teams had a decent amount of the ball, but in truth neither team was making a host of clear cut chances. Or any, in fact. However, we took the lead after a quarter of an hour or so. The ball was crossed into the Vale area, Payne got hold of it and passed it to Harry Worley. He was in a position not entirely different to the one he found himself in the Hereford game. That time, he'd blazed the ball over the bar. This time he struck it beautifully into the far corner. We were in the lead! More jubilation. We looked over to see how the Vale boys were taking it. They weren't there. A whole section of support had vanished.

Actually thay hadn't vanished (you guessed!), they had moved at half time, down to the other end of the stand to be nearer to the goal they were attacking. The goal deflated the Vale team. We were happy enough to contain the ineffective Vale attacks and to try and get another goal on the counter attack. After 25 minutes of so of the half, Jack Midson went off to great applause and was replaced by Beano. Midson had scored and had worked his socks off, holding the ball up very well. As a spectacle, the rest of the second half wasn't brilliant. Hackney was replaced by MacLean and Batt went to an unaccustomed left back in place of Kinniborough. Port Vale huffed and puffed and got increasingly desperate, we kept the ball well sometimes and defended well all the time. There was quite a lot of taking the ball into the corner from us, and much frustration for the home team, a couple of whom were booked for verbals to the ref (I think). Despite the usual late nerves from us all in the stands, the Oxford goal wasn't really seriously threatened. After four minutes of injury time torture, the ref blew for full time.

Quite a lot of the Port Vale fans had already gone. Which was odd. They were only one down, and are still in the play off positions. They won't be at the end of the season unless they improve quickly.

I said goodbye to my terrace friends and made my way out to the car. Outside the ground, there were some (as far as I could see) minor scuffles and what seemed like hundreds of police to stop them. Anyway, I avoided the scuffles and the fuzz and got into the queue to get out of the car park. On the way back through Burslem, there were knots of Vale youth hanging about - obviously looking for trouble. I suppose there's not much else to do when all the amenities have closed down.

The journey back was fine (I avoided the toll again).

My thoughts on the way back:

That team looked much better for an away match. Much more solid defensively.
Great support - again. Despite a very disppointing week, 600 made the long trip north.
We are still five points off the play offs, but have three home matches coming up. Win them all, and maybe, just maybe!
Why do Vale fans have yellow and black scarves when their team colours are black and white? And why are they called Port Vale anyway?
Nice to see Lincoln Yellow and Leicester Yellow again and to meet Hoodsy. He's far less sarcastic in real life! :)

See you all Tuesday night vs Stevenage notBorough. I'll be wearing the yellow shirt, so no worries!