Port Vale

Port Vale v Reading

Sky Bet League One
Vale Park

Saturday 12^th August 2023

3pm

Journey Time to the ground: 3 hours 55 minutes.  We left home at 9:25pm and arrived in Stoke at 1:20pm after a short stop at Warwick Services to get some petrol and despite the M42 being completely closed between two junctions for roadworks .  We managed to park up in Louise Street which is about a five-minute walk from the ground.

Ticket Price: £25

Programme Price: £3

Attendance: 8,789 with 1,132 Reading fans.

This was my first visit to Vale Park and Reading's first visit in over twenty years after relegation to League One last season.  Although we arrived early we decided to stay close to the ground.  We walked around the ground and bumped in to Robbie Savage who was at the game to watch his son Charlie.  We had a look in the club shop and the fan zone then made our way to the away end.  We had tickets in the Bycars Stand which was previously the main home end.  The Bycars Stand is a single-tiered all-seater stand.  The view from close to the front of the middle of the stand was very good and leg room was good although we stood for the whole game.

To the left of the Bycars Stand is the Lorne Street Stand.  This two-tiered all-seater stand is the main stand at Vale Park and houses the team dug-outs at its front.  Opposite the Bycars Stand is the Hamil Road Stand, which is a single-tiered all-seater stand and was where the most vociferous Port Vale fans seemed to congregate.  To the right of the Bycars Stand is the Railway Stand, a two-tiered all-seater stand.

This was Reading's first away game in the third tier for over twenty years and followed a tumuluous summer with various transfer embargoes and struggles to build a squad capable of competing at this level.  As such I wasn't quite sure what to expect from a team composed of a few first-teamers from last season mixed with a number of academy graduates and free signings.  Reading started the first-half on the front foot and were awarded a penalty in the 12^th minute when Nesta Guiness-Walker's mazy run was ended by Dan Jones.  Up stepped Andy Carroll who's effort was saved by Connor Ripley in the Vale goal.   Vale had the ball in the net against the run of play just after the half-hour mark but Alex Iacovitti's half-volley was ruled out for offside.

Into the second-half and Port Vale came into the game more, creating more chances with Reading struggling to get a foothold in the game.  The deadlock was broken in the 72^nd minute when Ben Garrity capitalised on pinball inside the Reading box and saw his deflected effort loop over debutant David Button in the Reading goal.  Things could have got worse for Reading with Button tipping Funso Ojo's effort onto the crossbar after Ojo had been played in by Mitch Clark.  Despite being second best for most of the second period Reading came agonisingly close to an equaliser in stoppage time as Lewis Wing's cross-shot hit the bar and Vale held on for the win.

Atmosphere: The atmosphere in the away end was very good until Port Vale scored, at which point it became quite toxic.  The Port Vale fans were very quiet, only really making any noise for about five minutes after they opened the scoring and at full-time.

Journey Time home: 3 hours 30 minutes.  We arrived back at the car at 5:15pm and drove to Hanley to get some dinner at The Reginald Mitchell Wetherspoons.  We left Stoke at 6:35pm and after stopping for an hour at Hilton Park Services for a hot chocolate and some fuel arrived home just after 10:35pm.

I enjoyed my trip to Port Vale despite the result.  The ground was relatively simple to find and parking close to the ground was easy.  Vale Park is a pretty good ground and the atmosphere in the away end more than made up for the poor performance on the pitch.  Having said that, I feel if Carroll had converted the early penalty it would have been a comfortable victory for the Royals.