Last nights 1-1 draw with West Bromwich Albion marked the end of the 2017/18 pre-season schedule.
The Vale squad returned to training back on the 29th of June and five weeks and six games later, as well as a trip to Spain, it’s time to get the League Two campaign underway.
All the work throughout the past few weeks has been in preparation for August 5th and Assistant Manager Ned Kelly, is glad the league campaign is back upon us.
He said: “Pre-season is finished and now let’s get ready to dance as they say. It will be a tough game against Crawley, we’ve seen them play and Wracky (Darren Wrack) the chief scout has been there to see how they set up, so we will look forward to the game.
“I’m glad its over (Pre-Season) I’m not a lover of it if I must admit, I worry for the whole 6 weeks about the players getting injured, but we haven’t been to bad we haven’t got many struggling which is good news an I think we’ve managed the load really quite well.”
The final fixture against West Brom saw seven of the starting eleven, having graduated through the Youth Academy at Vale Park.
Ryan Boot, James Gibbons, Joe Davis, Nathan Smith, Mike Calveley, Billy Reeves and Dan Turner all started the game.
Having all worked with Mick Ede and his staff over the years, Ned praised the work that has been done to produce first team players.
“It’s really good if you can bring in your own players through the system, it means you don’t have to pay a transfer fee so its better for everyone.
“The boys have come in an done well in pre-season and they’ve all got minutes and they’ve also still got lots to learn, but it’s very pleasing how well they’ve done.”