Port Vale

Vale must now await Stoke's final result to see if they progress into the knock-out stages

Port Vale 2 (0) v Wrexham 0 (0)

Wednesday 11 November 2015

League Cup – Northern Group C

Hooper Brace Puts Reserves On Top Of Cup Group

PORT VALE:Chris Neal (Harry Pickering 60)Ryan Lloyd, McKenzie Faulkner, Taylor Attrell, Chris Birchall, Michael Brown, JJ Hooper, Omar Haughton, Sam Kelly. , Adam Yates (James Gibbons 46), Aziz Deen-Conteh (Alex Morris 32),

SUBS NOT USED:,Brad Ede, Dan Turner.

 WREXHAM: , John Cofie (Danny Reynolds 86), James Gray. 74)Cameron Belford, Ross White, Jake Doran, Blaine Hudson, Aaron Simpson, Kayden Jackson, Adriano Moke (Iwan Cartwright 59), Jonathan Royle, James Caton (Joe Williams

SUBS NOT USED:Liam Sharpe.

A couple of goals by JJ Hooper in the second half put Vale Reserves on top of their League Cup Group as they completed their fixtures. It now means a 6 week wait to see if they enter the semi-finals as a win by Stoke in their final game at home to Wigan would see Vale miss out on goal difference.

Early exchanges were end to end but without any early chances; the closest was after a foul on Hooper that saw a short one played to Birchall whose drive was charged down. Just after the 15 minute mark Brown had a shot blocked and then hit a second effort that Belford collected comfortably at the foot of the post. Vale were creating more than the visitors and just before the half-hour mark Hooper fed Birchall out wide on the right and then just failed to get on the end of the resulting cross.

Two minutes later and Hooper put in Birchall in on goal but the ‘keeper just beat him to the ball and pushed the ball away and Deen-Conteh was soon being substituted after being unable to run off an earlier knock. Birchall put over a good cross but Haughton’s header was well over the bar as he could not get over the ball as the half finished without too much excitement.

Wrexham were pushing forward at the start of the second period and Neal was forced into a save to keep the score goalless; Vale responded with Hooper creating a shooting chance for himself but the blazed over. Hooper was soon setting up Brown but his low shot was saved by Belford. A minute before being substituted Neal pulled off another good save from Jackson.

  minute. Wrexham should have equalised after 74 minutes as Caton headed wide when unmarked and he was immediately substituted. Morris had a shot that was deflected for a corner as Vale looked for a second; from the corner Hooper eventually shot over the bar after being set-up by Lloyd. ^th livened proceedings up as he turned 20 yards from goal and curled the ball over the players in front and into the far top corner of the net past the despairing dive of the ‘keeper in the 67HooperAs the match started to drift

through on goal in the final minute of added time and he easily beat the ‘keeper by driving the ball just inside the far post to give Vale a 2 goal win.HooperPickering made his first save with 7 minutes left from a shot by Coffi who was injured in the attempt. He recovered enough to bring another save from Pickering a couple of minutes later. The final action saw Birchall put