The Valiants play their final game of the season as we welcome newly-crowned Sky Bet League One Champions, Lincoln City, to Vale Park on Saturday.
Vale come into this weekend's season closer off the back of an impressive 2-1 win away at play-off chasing Stockport County on Tuesday night. Goals in the first half from Martin Sherif and Jordan Gabriel was all that separated the two sides in Greater Manchester.
Post Stockport Thoughts:
Here’s what the gaffer made of Tuesday’s victory:
“We knew we might suffer without the ball, but I felt we played well on the ball today. It was absolutely brilliant from the boys, taking responsibility.”
Our Opponents
The Imps have been a mainstay in League One, being in the division since their promotion from League Two in 2019. Lincoln won the league by six points that season, finishing ahead of Bury and MK Dons. Saturday’s hosts do have one bit of major silverware to their name, winning the Football League Trophy in 2018, beating Shrewsbury Town 1-0 in the final.
Lincoln have recently been crowned champions of Sky Bet League One, following their win away at Doncaster Rovers just over a week ago. City last suffered defeat in the league all the way back in November when Wycombe Wanderers beat them 3-2, meaning they are currently on an astonishing twenty-eight game unbeaten run. They come into the final game following a 4-3 win at home against Wycombe.
The Opposition Dugout
The man in charge at Lincoln is Michael Skubala. He was appointed in November 2023 following the sacking of Mark Kennedy and has gone on to lead 139 games, winning seventy of those.
This is the 43-year-old's first professional managerial role after he spent less than a year working at Leeds United as Assistant Manager and then the U21s Manager. Prior to this, Skubala had coaching spells at Barwell FC, Loughborough University and Coventry City Youth.
Player to Watch
A player for Vale fans to look out for is left-back, Adam Reach. Adam is his sides highest performing player so far this season, helping his side achieve eighteen clean sheets. He has also scored on four occasions and contributed four assists. The full back joined the Imps in the summer window after a spell with Wycombe Wanderers that saw him reach the play-offs.
Fixture Throwback
Port Vale 1-0 Lincoln City, 29th October 2022
Vale have a 50% win ratio against Lincoln in their last six home games, with our most recent victory coming in 2022.
The game's only goal of the game came midway through the second half. The move started with Ellis Harrison as he laid the ball off to Mipo Odubeko at the edge of the box, before the young striker got a shot away. Mipo’s effort was saved by the keeper, but Danny Butterworth was there to follow in and give Vale the lead, and what turned out to be the winning goal.