Opposition View: Port Vale (A), 2 September 2017

August 31, 2017

Notts County have ended August in a healthy league position of seventh in the table following two wins, a draw and a defeat from their first four League Two fixtures.

This weekend, in the first match of September, the Magpies travel to Vale Park for yet another difficult proposition in these early weeks, against recently relegated Port Vale.

As baptisms of fire go, having three teams that were in League One last season as your opponents in the first five league fixtures of the season has to be right up there.

Nonetheless, Notts are in a healthy position both on the pitch and off it going into Saturday's game.

Pride of Nottingham spoke to Valiants fan Robbie Earle's Perm ahead of the fixture to get an insight into the opposition.

About REP: I've been a supporter since 1982, I fell asleep during my first game against Scunthorpe apparently! My dad was a Vice President and dragged me along as a very small child. Favourite player without a shadow of a doubt was the legend that is Robbie Earle, I have his shorts from the play off final victory over Bristol Rovers from 1989!

You've twice been in administration this century - what happened and how did you as a club overcome it?

The first followed the collapse of ITV Digital and our slightly hookie chairman sticking all his eggs in one basket with it after he had axed our legendary manager John Rudge. The second was simply repulsive. We were being run by a 'fans' consortium', Valiant 2001, who sourced money from the average fan and then basically used their positions for their own their own benefit from 2003 to 2012 in various guises. They brought a number of odious characters to the board during that time and clung to power so desperately even though they did not have the finances to support the club and ignored many fans' protests, the fans they were supposed to represent! One member became CEO and took out a significant salary annually and even got his share money back before admin struck, others bought in with nil-paid shares (they never paid for them) but ultimately every single board member (Micky Adams briefly aside) should hang their heads in shame during those 9 years.

You were relegated last season - what went wrong? - What steps has the club taken in the summer to have a team with the potential to bounce back?

Things were going well until October when the playing side began to fall apart and Bruno Ribeiro, who was brought in by our owner last summer to reinvigorate the club after a particularly dull and uninspiring time under Rob Page. Sadly as seemed obvious to all the vast numbers of players from overseas struggled to adjust as the temperatures dropped and Bruno resigned on Boxing Day. That lead to Michael Brown taking over the role of manager on a temporary basis until the summer and finally being appointed full time this summer. This ultimately is where the problems went from bad to worse, we have signed a crazy amount of players over the last 14/15 months and Brown's signings have in the main been injury prone, aging or unproven youngsters. Tactics have largely been completely baffling and his training regime has led to many muscle injuries. Fans started to turn a couple of weeks ago during our abysmal defeat to Chesterfield but Brown and his assistants Morgan and Kelly seem slightly oblivious hoping more signings and a settled side will improve us. We have cried out for quality over quantity during the reign of Page, Ribeiro and Brown and all three have simply ignored this which has lead in my opinion to our decline.

We in Nottingham have "noisy neighbours" in Forest - how does it feel as a Port Vale fan to have Stoke City FC on your doorstep?

Its a little inconsequential at the moment to be honest. We had the upper hand for much of the 1990s but since the early 2000s our paths haven't crossed. Fans still sing songs about Stoke and that little diver Mark Stein but in all honesty we are light years apart currently which is a huge shame as, when I was growing up, the intensity in the city between the two teams was superb.

Robbie Williams is arguably your most famous fan - do you have any stories, or have heard any stories, about him at Port Vale?

Quirkily, he actually went to the same school as me and saved me from being beaten up by some older kids during my first year! I also sat on the same row as him away at a Stoke game in the early 90s. Other than that not too much as he doesn't attend or openly support Vale so much anymore. That said during the 90s and at the height of Take That's powers he generated record club shop sales by wearing replica shirts etc which young girls the world over then ordered and of course he put in £249k to the club when the 'fans consortium' Valiant 2001 (the maximum amount allowed at the time) came to power, sadly that and his proxy vote on the board was then used by the repulsive board members to protect their positions of power.

What games are you looking forward to the most this season?

Coventry to be honest, one of my closest friends is a huge Coventry fan and finally I'm hoping we will get to attend both games together as it hasn't happened over recent seasons. Other than that any local game where there is a good atmosphere created by the crowd is always worth attending, so roll on the 2nd September!

Score/and scorer(s)

I can't see anything other than ANOTHER defeat if Brown is still in charge sadly as you appear well organised with a strong spine, 0-2 with Lewis Alessandra and Michael O'Connor, a real favourite of mine, scoring. (We wish he was playing but he's out for the long term - Ed) Hopefully you will leave that terrible excuse for a human being Dan Jones a long way away from Vale Park.