PUDDLE LEFT CITY IN A MUDDLE AS VALIANTS WON CUP REPLAY
TODAY marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most dramatic Potteries derby games ever played. Our Vale reporter Mike Baggaley takes a look through the archives to mark a terrific game in a memorable season.
THE Potteries football rivalry may never have burned more fiercely than in 1992/93. Port Vale and Stoke City played each other five times, recording two wins each and a draw as they slugged it out in what is now League One, the FA Cup and the Autoglass Trophy.
The teams on both sides were full of players fondly and proudly remembered as heroes on either side of the Potteries – Johnny Butler, Lee Sandford, Vince Overson, Ian Cranson, Nigel Gleghorn, Kevin Russell and Mark Stein among the Stoke favourites – Ray Walker, Peter Swan, Dean Glover, Neil Aspin, Andy Porter, Martin Foyle and Ian Taylor among the Valiants.
Not only that, they were led by managers among the greatest to have patrolled a dug out in the Potteries.
On the one side was John Rudge, right, simply Vale’s finest manager and now back at Vale Park as club president. A manager so popular that supporters are raising money for a statue in his honour.
On the other side was Lou Macari, responsible for getting Stoke out of League One and into the play offs in the Championship. Not only has he also stayed in the area, he founded the Macari Centre in Hanley to help people sleeping on the streets.
So, we are among men whose influence grew far beyond that season, but whose adventures in 1992/93 would surely account for a large chapter of their footballing lives.
Spoiler alert – the Vale won this one, so apologies to Stoke fans, but this game really is a game well worth repeating even 30 years on.
Stoke had won a league meeting 2-1 at the Victoria Ground by the time the teams were paired together in the first round of the FA Cup. They battled out a goalless draw at Stoke in the first game so headed to Vale Park for a replay screened live on Sky.
Mind you, viewers might have thought they were watching footage filmed aboard the high seas rather than Burslem because it rained, and rained….and rained that day.
That would prove crucial in providing the most famous puddle in Potteries football history, but not before Stoke had seized an early advantage.
A ‘competitive’ contest went too far when Steve Foley’s over the ball challenge forced Neil Aspin off with a knee injury on 15 minutes. And Vale were dealt a further blow on 23 when Overson knocked down Kevin Russell’s free-kick for Sandford to fire Stoke into the lead. But Vale levelled after just a minute as Nicky Cross found Foyle to beat Ronnie Sinclair with an angled strike. Better was to come for Vale just before half-time when Cross found Porter who let fly with left footer into the top corner from the edge of the area.
The rain didn’t relent and neither did the chances at either end in the second half – none better than when Paul Musselwhite miscued a clearance that fell invitingly to Dave Regis. He fired low towards a gaping net, only for the ball to get stuck in a goalmouth puddle, allowing man of the match Swan to hack it clear.
John Jeffers hit the post as Vale pressed for a third rather than just sit on their lead. That goal finally arrived in the final minute when Cross found Foyle who veered past Sinclair before steering home his shot.
Game over. Vale were through but both camps recognised they had been involved in quite a contest. Macari said: “I would not criticise any of my players for this result. I thought they battled magnificently and the outcome was scant reward for all the hard work they put in. They probably worked harder than any Stoke team has done for years.”
As for Rudge, he said: “Stoke are a good team and we had to match them. I hope we will be together at the top at the end of the season.”
They nearly were. Vale won 1-0 at the Victoria Ground in the Autoglass Trophy in March 1993 on their way to winning the competition at Wembley. But Stoke won 2-0 at Vale in the league later than month on their way to becoming champions.
Vale had to settle for third and the play-offs despite amassing 89 points. They lost in the final to West Brom, but regrouped and went up automatically the following season.
Plenty of Potteries derbies followed throughout the 1990s but maybe none quite had the drama of an appallingly wet – but for Vale fans at least, wonderful - evening in Burslem on November 24, 1992.