Although I’d like to see us get the two wins from our final three matches to become the highest points scorers in City history os the seven points that would see us become the first Cardiff side to average two points per game over the course of a season ever, it may well not happen.
Both the 59/60 and 12/13 teams had their promotions to the Premier League/First Division confirmed on 16 April which meant that, like this team, they still had a fair few matches left to play when they went up.
Sixty six years ago, we lost to Plymouth and drew with Bristol Rovers at home after promotion was clinched and also drew at Sunderland. Besides that, we lost a two leg Welsh Cup Final with Wrexham by drawing at home and losing the return game at the Racecourse.
In 12/13, we clinched the title by drawing our next game at Burnley before following that up with two more draws at home to Bolton and away to eventual runners up, Hull.
So, history suggests that we may now see a hardly surprising sense of anti climax in our final three games because, let’s face it, there’s nothing to play for in them is there?
No, tomorrow’s home game with Port Vale is all about the visitors really, they come here knowing they have to win to maintain their very slim hopes of staying up and, as such, I’d guess City had a few temporary supporters around the Stoke area celebrating our promotion on Saturday!
I know there are many who write off football stats, but I would mention that, for much of the first half of the season, Port Vale’s underlying stats were suggestive of a much better team than the one that was already becoming tailed off at the bottom of the table. Darren Moore was sacked on the grounds that Vale were heading down despite what the stats might say and, although his replacement, Jon Brady, has overseen something of an improvement and there has been a notable FA Cup run which helped leave them with a right fixtures pile up to finish their campaign (their game tomorrow will be their fourth in eight days), the feeling that Vale are as good as down has never gone away.
There is one other Port Vale stat I’m going to mention – it’s appearing on social media, so there’s always the risk that it’s not true, but, apparently, Port Vale are the team with the most home clean sheets (thirteen) in all competitions out of the ninety two Premier League and EFL clubs. Now, that aforementioned FA Cup run. where they were drawn at home in all games (apart from the Quarter Final at Chelsea) and only conceded one goal in reaching the last eight will have a lot to do with that, but it is a remarkable figure for a team that has been bottom of their league for months.
City were the first of the teams not to score at Vale Park as they were fortunate to return with a 0-0 draw after surviving a very stern defensive test in their second game of the campaign and a win this time cannot be out of the question for Vale tomorrow even if they end up in League Two next season, as they surely must.
On to the quiz, seven Port Vale related questions with the answers to be posted on Thursday.
60s. With an elder brother who had played for Vale in the same position as him, this local boy signed as an amateur initially and ended up playing nearly two hundred more times for them than his sibling did. After six years, a £10,000 fee was enough to get him to move east to a team that had recently celebrated an unlikely triumph – the transfer was completed hours before he learned that Manchester United were interested in signing him. He became a regular pick at his new club, but he did not have a high opinion of the footballing Knight who arrived as the new manager and almost immediately sold him to a London club where he was going to be an understudy to one of the best in his position in the game at the time. His final Football League club experienced a sad and avoidable death a few years back and the town he played for are now trying to come back as a Phoenix club – South Wales drinkers will perhaps associate him with something they like, but who is he?
70s. Another player with a surname which is unique in my time following the game, this defender played league football for four clubs, three of which could be described as local rivals at a stretch. He started out at a border town with a ground, which no longer exists, that was just about as central as any I’ve visited. Port Vale were his second club and it was here where he made the transition from squad member into first team regular during his two years at the club. His next move saw him turning out for a club that are as far away from their bitterest rivals as they’ve ever been (five divisions separate them currently), but they were regulars at what is now League One level in the three years while he was with them. His final club were from Yorkshire and have a nickname which is phonetically equivalent to the band that had a number one hit that was banned by the BBC in 1992, can you name the player concerned.
80. Bear gets burned by boiler and heads east! (6,5)
90s. This striker scored against Bradford and Tranmere while on loan at Port Vale during this decade. A few years later, he only scored five times that number for us despite us paying what was a big fee by our standards for him, do you know who he is?
00s. This cousin of an England international who died young played for nineteen different clubs at various levels over an eleven year career with the thirty five league games he played for Oldham representing the most he played for one club. The twenty three games he played for Port Vale was above average by his standards and the goal he scored for them was one of only four he managed in his career despite Wikipedia listing him as a midfield player (two of his other goals were scored for Oldham, with the other one coming at Sheffield Wednesday). Can you name him?
10s. He played for Cardiff and Port Vale during this decade and, after playing all of his age group football for the country where four of the eleven clubs he has played for are based, he has won full caps for the country of his birth despite him never having played professional football there – who is he?
20s. Sounds like a pen pusher on unauthorised leave!
Answers to follow:
