Andy Crosby’s side will be backed by more than 1,600 travelling supporters as we make the short trip to Shropshire to face Shrewsbury Town on Saturday.

League football takes centre stage this weekend as Port Vale make the short trip to Shrewsbury Town in Sky Bet League One.

The Valiants' last league outing ended in a 1-1 draw against Lincoln City. Ben Garrity gave us a first half lead with a close-range finish before Olamide Shodipo levelled the tie in the 93rd minute to snatch a point for the Imps.

Since this league draw, Vale have also progressed in the Emirates FA Cup. On Tuesday 14th November we travelled to the Pirelli Stadium to face Burton Albion in a First Round Replay. Gavin Massey put Vale ahead with a close-range finish in the first half before Lewis Cass doubled the lead in the second half when he met a cross at the near post. This win sets up a Second Round tie against Stevenage at the Lamex Stadium.

Crosby’s Comments:

Here’s what the gaffer had to say ahead of Saturday’s return to league action

“Consistently picking up points is off the back of consistently good performances, our performances have been ok but we’re in the business of winning, we have to win games of football. I think if your performances are consistent and your message is consistent, you’re giving the players the best chance of producing on a game day.”

“We’ve found points hard to come by in the league of late and we now go into a period of time where we have 11-12 games before January 2nd. It’s a hectic period, we’re going to need the whole squad. We’ve got Shrewsbury on Saturday and we have to start turning those decent performances into more points.”

The Opposition

Shrewsbury Town currently sit in 16^th place in the league, one place and one point above Vale. However, they have played two games more. The Shrews come into the game with one win in their past five fixtures. This win came at home to Reading where they won 3-2. Going into second half added time Shrewsbury were 2-1 down but two injury time goals turned the game on its head and earned them all three points.

Player to watch: 

It’s fair to say that goals have been hard to come by for Shrewsbury this season, they have only found the net 10 times in their 18 games so far. Chey Dunkley, Daniel Udoh and Tom Bayliss have also scored twice this season and are joint top scorers.

Bayliss has recently picked up an ankle injury so he will play no part in Saturday’s fixture. Dunkley is a powerful defender who is a handful in both boxes, both his goals have come from set plays so he will be one to keep an eye out for.

Another player to keep an eye out for his former Valiant Mal Benning who joined Shrewsbury Town in the summer. He has so far made 12 league appearances for The Shrews. He also found the net in their Bristol Street Motors victory over Walsall ten days ago.

Fixture Throwback

Shrewsbury Town 1-2 Port Vale, Saturday 11^th October 2008,

Louis Dodds gave Vale the lead after 19 minutes when he thundered home a strike from the edge of the box after good link up play from Vale. This looked to be winner in what was a fairly drab game.

However, in the 89^th Michael Symes’ deflected shot found its way into the back of the net to level the scores right at the death. The game was not over yet though. In added time, Dodds spotted the run of the run of Marc Richards who beat the keeper to the ball and found the back of the net to spark scenes of jubilation in the packed away end as Vale snatched all three points at the death.