The Valiants return to Vale Park tomorrow afternoon after a run of four successive away matches, and ahead of the clash against Leyton Orient we look back at two classic matches against the O's.
League One, Vale Park, Saturday 29th March 2008: Port Vale 2-1 Leyton Orient
Vale were sat bottom of League One heading into this one and desperately needed a win to keep the hopes of staying up alive. The Valiants were handed a massive setback after 26 minutes however, Adam Eckersley brought down Jabo Ibhere in the box resulting in an Orient penalty. Adam Boyd dispatched the spot-kick to put the O’s ahead at Vale Park.
Vale toiled away but seemed to be heading for defeat, yet with 15 minutes left Marc Richards restored parity for the Vale. Eckersley, who had previously given the penalty away, delivered into the box where Richards controlled well and finished past Glenn Morris.
Things got even better for the Valiants when they sealed a vital three points in the last minute of the match thanks to a Morris error. The Orient keeper spilled a cross and it didn’t go unpunished as Dave Howland, who was on loan from Birmingham City, was quickest to react and poked home to earn the Vale all three points.
Port Vale – Anyon, Harsley, Pilkington, Pearce, Eckersley (Talbot 76), Richman (Lawrie 82), Whitaker, Howland, Perry, Rodgers (Mulligan 87), Richards
Subs not used – McGregor, Edwards
Leyton Orient – Morris, Purches, Mkandwire, Thelwell, Daniels, Barcham (Thornton 74), Chambers, Terry, Ibehre (Gray 74), Boyd, Demetriou
Subs not used – Nelson, Palmer, Fortune
Att. 3,252
League One, Vale Park, Saturday 25th October 2014: Port Vale 3-0 Leyton Orient
Port Vale were sat in 18th place in League One with Orient a few places above in 18th heading into this fixture. It was a bright start for the Valiants with Gary Woods doing well to stop Ryan McGivern’s long-range effort in the opening exchanges. The keeper was called into action once again not long after as he diverted Chris Lines’ effort onto the post. With Orient on the back foot already, things got even worse for the away side when Darius Henderson was dismissed for an elbow on Richard Duffy.
The Vale came close to capitalising on their numerical advantage when Jordan Slew, who featured for Morecambe against the Valiants on Tuesday, saw his header disallowed for offside. The home side then finally broke the deadlock after 63 minutes when Mark Marshall set up Adam Yates who rifled the ball home from 15-yards. Minutes later Vale tightened their grip on the match when Ben Williamson latched onto a Michael O’Connor pass and steered home past a helpless Woods.
Nine minutes from time the scoring was complete. O’Connor was once again at the heart of it as his free-kick took a decisive deflection off Nathan Clarke, taking the ball away from Woods and going in to make it 3-0.
The Vale stayed up that season whereas Orient were relegated. Rob Page was ultimately made permanent manager a couple of days later following a spell as caretaker manager.
Port Vale – Neal, Yates, McGivern, Duffy, Dickinson (Streete 46), Birchall, Lines, O’Connor, Marshall (Dodds 86), Williamson, Slew (N’Guessan 46)
Subs not used – Johnson, Daniel, Brown, Veseli
Leyton Orient – Woods, Omozusi, Cuthbert, Baudry, Lowry, McAnuff (Pritchard 65), Clarke, Bartley, Dagnall (Batt 76), Henderson, Simpson (Cox 64)
Subs not used – Lee, Kashket, Grainger, Ling
Att. 4,773