The Valiants play the second part of a Vale Park double header against Huddersfield Town this Saturday afternoon.
Jon Brady’s side comes into Saturday’s clash with the Terriers off the back of a 2-0 defeat to Bradford City on Wednesday evening. Goals in either half for the visitors were enough to secure the points.
Post Bradford Thoughts
Here’s what the gaffer had to say regarding Wednesday’s result:
“I thought they (Bradford) were brilliant and thought they dominated the game from start to finish, and it could’ve been a lot more if it wasn’t for Joe in goal."
Our Opponents
Huddersfield Town were a Premier League side less than ten years ago. They stayed in the top flight for two seasons until they finished bottom of the league and were subsequently relegated. Since then, the Terriers spent four seasons in the Championship before they were relegated to the third tier in 2024.
Town currently sit in sixth position, just one point ahead of Reading in seventh. They had a good start to the season, claiming 12 points from their opening five games. However, Huddersfield hit a rough patch in September, which saw them drop down the table, but the Terriers regained their form and now sit in a play-off spot. The Yorkshire club comes into Saturday’s clash following a 1-0 win against Rotherham United.
The Opposition Dugout
Liam Manning is the man in charge of the Yorkshire outfit. He was appointed in January of this year following the departure of Lee Grant.
Manning is a man with great experience in English football, with this being his fifth managerial job in the country. However, he did get his managerial breakthrough with Lommel SK in Belgium, but returned to his native country to take over MK Dons just a year later.
Since being appointed at Huddersfield, Liam has taken charge of ten games, winning five of those.
Player to Watch
A player for Vale fans to watch out for is central defender Murray Wallace. Murray is one of Huddersfield’s highest-performing players this season and has been an integral part of their promotion push. He has also scored one goal, which came on a 1-1 draw with Wigan Athletic.
Fixture Throwback
Port Vale 5-1 Huddersfield Town, 26th April 2003
The last time the Valiants came out victorious against Huddersfield at Vale Park was twenty-three years ago, when the two sides met in a Division Two match.
Ian Armstrong got Vale off to a great start in the game by giving his side the lead with twenty minutes played before Adrian Littlejohn doubled Vale’s advantage on the half-hour mark. However, with half-time approaching, the visitors grabbed a goal back to make the score 2-1.
The Valiants started the second half as they did the first, and restored their two-goal advantage when Ian Armstrong grabbed his second of the game. Eight minutes from time, Sam Collins got Vale’s fourth to all but secure the three points, but the scoring wasn’t finished there as Phil Charnock would go on to score his side's fifth of the afternoon.
