Written by Max
Ground #82
Saturday 29th August 2026
EFL League 2
Port Vale 0-0 Crewe Alexandra
Attendance: 8997
Entry: £27
Port Vale were formed in 1876 and last season celebrated their 150th anniversary, marking the occasion with an abject relegation back to league 2.
The club are based in Burslem in Stoke-on-Trent and are one of very few clubs to not be named after a town or city. There are a few different theories as to where the name Port Vale came from but the clubs official website explains that the club was formed at a meeting at a building named ‘Port Vale House’.
The club have spent the majority of their existence yo-yoing between the 3rd and 4th tiers of English football and have the record of the most seasons in the EFL without reaching the top tier (115 if you were wondering). In recent times the club have struggled financially going into administration twice this century.
The club have an incredibly famous supporter in Robbie Williams, who even played a gig at the ground in 2022 infront of 20,000 people. He is also now the clubs front of shirt sponsor.
Now it may seem that I’m waffling about the club now, and in truth I am, as I’ve got to find something to fill this blog with. The game was a local derby as Port Vale took on Crewe in what should have been a fiery early season test for both sides.
Unfortunately, in terrible weather conditions, both teams failed to show up in a game of very few chances. Crewe could have won it late on with a fast breakaway finding Josh March bearing down on goal only to see his shot hit into the side netting. That was about as good as it got as the game ended goalless
Lets move on quickly and rate the ground itself. Check out our scores below:
Location 5/10
Vale Park is located in the town of Burslem which is one of the six towns that make up the city of Stoke-on-Trent. The ground is just a short walk from the town centre and is surrounded by terraced streets where we found space to park before the game.
Burslem doesn’t have a train station so if travelling via train the best option you have is a 40 minute walk from Longport station, or a bus/taxi from Stoke station which isn’t ideal.
Kit: 8/10
This years Port Vale kit includes a black and white angled half and half shirt with black shorts and white socks.
The gold logos and sponsorship fit in really nicely on the shirt and the unique sponsorship from Vale fan Robbie Williams could make this shirt a collectors item.
Facilities: 6/10
Ahead of the game we had seen online that there was a fanzone including a bar and food options so headed there as soon as we arrived. This was sign posted as ‘home fans only’ but no one was checking on entry so as long as you are sensible you should be fine to use this area.
It was really well done with a covered bar area well used by supporters trying to stay out of the rain, as well as a number of food vendors to choose from.
There is also a ‘Vale Social’ club but we didn’t think attempting going in there as away fans was the cleverest idea!
Within the away end were 2 small refreshment kiosks offering the usual food and drink options. The only one serving alcohol was out the back of the stand and open to the elements so was pretty much unusable in todays awful conditions.
Look: 7/10
Vale Park has been home to The Valiants since 1950 and has gone through numerous changes over the years including an initial capacity of over 40,000! Ahead of construction it was billed as ‘The Wembley of the North’ with a planned capacity of 80,000, although this dream never became a reality. Nowadays the ground has a much more modest all seated capacity of 16,800.
The newest of the four stands is the Lorne Street Stand which includes the dugouts, changing rooms and hospitality boxes. Only half of this stand is usable on matchdays due to the concourse beneath the stand still not being finished 27 years after construction.
Opposite this is the railway stand which was converted into an all seater in the 1990s. Behind one goal is the Hamil Road End which used to be the away end, until 2023 when they swapped it round and this is now home to the more noisy home fans.
The away end is now the Bycars stand and you can sort of tell why they’ve made the decision to house away fans here. The only way to get to the turnstiles is along a mud track which was a slippery mudbath by full time after the days rain. The facilities in this stand have also seen better days. The roof on the stand is huge though and this means you can create a great atmosphere with the sound echoing down.
This stand kind of sums up the ground as a whole. Aging and in need of an upgrade, but a proper lower league football ground full of history and character.
Food and Drink: 8/10
Ahead of the game we headed into the aforementioned fan zone in the car park behind the home end. Aswell as the impressive undercover bar area there were a number of street food vendors offering a variety of different things from coffee to burritos to burgers.
As we were masquerading as home fans we decided to go for the local delicacy of a Staffordshire oatcake. Emma filled hers with sausage and cheese while I went for bacon and cheese. At just £3 each these were a bargain and although small, were really tasty and a brilliant pre match snack. Emma said she would happily have one of these before a game every week!
Inside the ground were the usual disappointing selection of overpriced pies and hot dogs so we would definitely recommend checking out the fan zone before going into the ground.
TOTAL SCORE: 34/50
This was our first time watching Crewe this season and we were really looking forward to a big derby day to see how we were looking in the early days of the season. Unfortunately the game, a bit like the weather, was awful, and we spent the majority of the second half thinking of what other more exciting things we could have been doing with our bank holiday weekend!
If you want to see where this score puts Vale Park on our leaderboard you can check out the table here: Football League Leaderboard.
If you’d like to see our Leaderboard of Non-League Grounds click here: Non-League Leaderboard.
Emma’s Ground Guide 