In conversation with a Port Vale fan

Ahead of our game against Port Vale on Saturday we talk to one of those Valiant fans that travels all over the country. Having only missed a handful of games over the last three seasons, Jordan Yates was more than happy to give us an insight into Port Vale.

Two months ago life was good for Port Vale fans. The Valiants had been many people's pre-season favourites for the title and they weren't disappointing. A 5-0 win at Stockport County left them top of the table before the unofficial winter break, but a lot changed during that time for Port Vale.

Micky Adams was linked to Sheffield United after Gary Speed took over the Welsh national team, since then Vale have only won once in eight games, losing six of those and failing to score in five of them.

Speaking to Jordan Yates, he said that Adams being linked to the Blades was when the season changed both on and off the pitch. "Promotion was always in the minds of everyone after the strong finish to the previous season. It was just a case of riding it through, and with Mickey at the helm we all thought it was definatley within our grasp. I think it was inevitable that the Sheffield United rumour would effect the team but none of us thought it would effect them to the extent that it has done, as we had some really heavy away defeats. "

Some big names were linked to Port Vale, but the eventual manager came as a surprise to a few in the division. Jim Gannon had managed Stockport to promotion in the 2007/8 season from this division, almost ironically they replaced a relegated Port Vale in League One.

After that spells in Scotland and Peterborough followed, but despite his half decent record as a manager, his appointment has received very mixed reviews from Vale fans, including Jordan.

"Everyone had high expectations of the person that would replace Adams and it was always going to be a really hard task for someone too emulate what he's done. I think the problem with Gannon is that he's tried to change things far too quickly when nothing really needed changing. Obviously managers all have their different ways of playing and Gannon wants us too get it down and play football but as we've seen with Sinnott and Glover when we tried to do that it didnt work at all."

Scouring the popular Port Vale message board OneValeFan, you'd find several threads that were anti-Gannon, and the pre-season title favourites are now looking down the table with the hopes that they can hang on a Playoff place. Remarkably despite their incredibly poor run, they do still sit just one point behind third placed Crewe, but the pack behind them is catching up and a defeat at Sincil Bank on Saturday could easily see them fall out of the Playoff places.

One thing is Vale's favour though is they have the best defensive record in the top 10, conceding just 22 goals...City themselves have only scored 23, although six of those have come in recent games at Stockport and Cheltenham.

"If someone offered me 7th place now I would take it!, the way we have been playing recently we have a very slim chance." Jordan continued. "Hopefully Gannon can turn it round and get the boys playing again. We were again quite poor in the week as we drew 0-0 with Barnet a team who, lets be honest, we should be beating comfortably, but they came and did their job well and got a point so fair play to them."

Port Vale's current slump is very familiar to Imps fans, whom saw their 2006/7 season start brilliantly, having 50 points before New Year, but an extremely poor second half to the season saw us throw away promotion and lose in the Playoffs. We haven't been the same since.

The current slump certainly hasn't helped the board win the fans back. Their board is proving extremely unpopular with fans at the moment and OneValeFan has a "Black and Gold Until the Club is Sold." Fans such as Jordan hope that the club is sold fast, and to a gentleman by the name of Mo Chaudry/ 

"The black & gold campaign has been set up as an aim to get the club sold and the current board out. This is because for the last few years we as fans have been fed lie after lie from the board, and it is now time for them too move on." It's a situation that sounds familiar to City fans, whom a large number have recently come out in criticism of the board with regards to failing to sufficient back Tilson....although since then that has certainly changed.

"They dont care about the supporters and are only in it for themselves, a local, wealthy businessman Mo Chaudry is fighting to get the club and I really hope he is successful as I have real faith in him and envy the work that he has done in the past. Give Mo a Go!"

Look to Saturday, Jordan highlighted whom would be a match winner, or a match loser for the Valiants.

"I think recently our winger Rob Taylor has been the most dangerous attacking wise, and if Lincoln have a slow defence he could be quite dangerous for Vale. He bagged 2 goals in the 4-2 defeat at Burnley and put on a real good display, he also won man of the match for the last 2 home games. However a lot of our main players are out injured such as Marc Richards, Gary Roberts and Doug Loft."

"We have been leaking goals away from home as of late due to alot of defensive errors. I hope Gannon can get it right for this one. A positive from the midweek game against Barnet was we did keep a clean sheet so we will just have to wait and see what the game holds for us."

We would like to thank Jordan for his time and we hope he enjoys his trip to Sincil Bank on Saturday.