1978–79 Port Vale F.C. season

Port Vale

1978–79 season
Chairman	Arthur McPherson
Manager	Dennis Butler
Stadium	Vale Park
Football League Fourth Division	16th (42 Points)
FA Cup	First Round
League Cup	First Round
Player of the Year	Bernie Wright
Top goalscorer	League: Bernie Wright (14) All: Bernie Wright (15)
Highest home attendance	5,226 vs. Barnsley (14 April 1979)
Lowest home attendance	2,160 vs. Hereford United (1 May 1979)
Average home league attendance	3,287
Home colours
← 1977–78 1979–80 →

The 1978–79 season was Port Vale's 67th season of football in the Football League, and their first season (seventh overall) back in the Fourth Division following their relegation from the Third Division.^[1] Bernie Wright was highly impressive with his fifteen goals, though the rest of the team limped to a sixteenth place finish, and exited both cup competitions at the first stage. This occurred with unrest in the boardroom behind the scenes, unrest amongst fans on the terraces, and annoyance from Butler towards the fans for their abuse of his players. Butler broke club transfer-records in both signing players and selling them.

Overview

Fourth Division

The pre-season saw new manager Dennis Butler sign big striker Bernie Wright from Bradford City for £9,000 and right-back Neil Wilkinson on a free transfer from Blackburn Rovers.^[1] Butler also took the team on a three match tour of Scotland.^[1] Just before the start of the season Ken Todd was signed for a club-record £37,000, despite Todd having only made a handful of appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers.^[1] In the summer former Valiant Tommy McLaren committed suicide, friend and teammate Ray Williams said 'leaving the club shattered him'.^[1] On 2 October a Memorial Fund match was played, raising £3,000.^[1]

The season opened with just two victories in eleven league games, as both Todd and keeper John Connaughton were sidelined with injuries.^[1] The two wins came away from home, 5–1 over rivals Crewe Alexandra at Gresty Road (Wright scoring a hat-trick) and 3–1 at Doncaster Rovers at the Keepmoat Stadium.^[1] Butler then threw himself into the transfer market, selling John Froggatt to Northampton Town for £8,000, and then Mick Moore and Terry Bailey to Wigan Athletic and Northwich Victoria respectively, both for £2,000.^[1] Another 'shrewd piece of business' came when star forward Ken Beamish was sold to Bury for £35,000, whilst Gerry Keenan moved the other way for £15,000.^[1] In October, Felix Healy was signed from Finn Harps for £8,000, and Neil Wilkinson and £3,000 were traded to Crewe in exchange for outside-right Kevin Tully.^[1] Winning five games in a sequence of eight, Todd was still a disappointment to fans, who began getting 'on his back'.^[1] Butler's signings did not stop however, and instead he sold John Ridley to Leicester City for a club-record £55,000.^[1] He then signed Andy Proudlove from Buxton for £1,000 – despite interest from Stafford Rangers.^[1] Then in came midfielder Peter Farrell from Bury for a new club-record £40,000.^[1] They ended their club-record streaks of 42 away games without keeping a clean sheet on 30 September, and of twelve home games without a win on 21 October.

Going into December four games unbeaten, Butler then splashed out £30,000 on Chester's Bob Delgado.^[1] Despite this, Vale were thumped 6–2 by Barnsley in front of 10,532 at Oakwell.^[1] In January, legendary England goalkeeper Gordon Banks was appointed as coach, and results began to pick up as Vale were lifted into eighth spot.^[1] Healy left the club in February, only to return two weeks later.^[1] Behind the scenes there was trouble when Arthur McPherson ruled that club shares could only be transferable to a male relation, in order 'to safeguard plans by the current directors'.^[1] More defeats came, and the big money signings were targeted by fans for abuse.^[1] Butler reacted by calling the fans 'a bunch of yobs'.^[1] From mid-March, Vale went seven games with only one victory and one goal scored.^[1] On 21 March violence returned to Vale Park, when Portsmouth keeper Peter Mellor saved a penalty, floored Peter Farrell and made an 'assortment of gestures' to the Bycars End – he found himself attacked by a Vale fan on the pitch for his efforts.^[1] On 13 April, Vale surrendered a three goal lead at Springfield Park to lose 5–3 to Wigan Athletic.^[1] Danger of ending up in the re-election zone was ended with a late four game unbeaten spell, despite heavy defeats from Reading and York City.^[1]

They finished in sixteenth place with 42 points, with an awful defensive record of seventy goals conceded.^[1] Despite this their scoring tally away from Burslem was the highest in the Football League, and they were given £2,125 as a reward.^[1] Player of the Year Bernie Wright secured fifteen goals in what was a poor season for the club.^[1]

Finances

On the financial side, a record £52,000 loss was made despite a remarkable £225,000 income from the club's commercial department.^[1] Butler's transfer dealings had lost the club £36,000, whilst wages more than doubled from £113,000 to £259,000.^[1] The club's liabilities stood at £187,000.^[1] Despite all of this the club made 'surprisingly sparing use of the pruning knife', letting go just four players, most significantly David Harris (Halifax Town) and Andy Proudlove (Stafford Rangers).^[1] Behind the scenes, long-time club servant and president Mark Singer was fired, though chairman Arthur McPherson made no comment to the press.^[1]

Cup competitions

In the FA Cup, a weeks preparation in Blackpool failed to prevent Vale exiting at the first stage with a 1–0 defeat to Bradford City at Valley Parade.^[1]

In the League Cup, Third Division Chester knocked the Vale out 4–1 on aggregate.

Final league table

		P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
1	Reading	46	26	13	7	76	35	+41	65
2	Grimsby Town	46	26	9	11	82	49	+33	61
3	Wimbledon	46	25	11	10	78	46	+32	61
4	Barnsley	46	24	13	9	73	42	+31	61
5	Aldershot	46	20	17	9	63	47	+16	57
6	Wigan Athletic	46	21	13	12	63	48	+15	55
7	Portsmouth	46	20	12	14	62	48	+14	52
8	Newport County	46	21	10	15	66	55	+11	52
9	Huddersfield Town	46	18	11	17	57	53	+4	47
10	York City	46	18	11	17	51	55	-4	47
11	Torquay United	46	19	8	19	58	65	-7	46
12	Scunthorpe United	46	17	11	18	54	60	-6	45
13	Hartlepool United	46	13	18	15	57	66	-9	44
14	Hereford United	46	15	13	18	53	53	+0	43
15	Bradford City	46	17	9	20	62	68	-6	43
16	Port Vale	46	14	14	18	57	70	-13	42
17	Stockport County	46	14	12	20	58	60	-2	40
18	Bournemouth	46	14	11	21	47	48	-1	39
19	Northampton Town	46	15	9	22	64	76	-12	39
20	Rochdale	46	15	9	22	47	64	-17	39
21	Darlington	46	11	15	20	49	66	-17	37
22	Doncaster Rovers	46	13	11	22	50	73	-23	37
23	Halifax Town	46	9	8	29	39	72	-33	26
24	Crewe Alexandra	46	6	14	26	43	90	-47	26

P = Matches played; W = Matches won; D = Matches drawn; L = Matches lost; F = Goals for; A = Goals against; GD = Goal difference; Pts = Points

Results

Port Vale's score comes first

Legend

Win

Draw

Loss

Round	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42	43	44	45	46
Ground	H	A	A	H	H	A	A	H	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	A	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	A	A	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	H	A	A
Result	D	L	W	D	D	W	L	L	D	L	D	W	W	L	L	W	W	D	W	L	L	W	W	D	L	L	L	D	W	L	D	W	L	D	L	D	L	W	L	D	W	D	D	L	L	W
Position	9	17	6	9	9	8	12	15	15	16	15	13	10	14	16	14	11	12	10	15	17	11	8	8	9	11	15	15	15	15	13	12	12	13	13	13	15	14	16	16	14	13	15	16	17	16

Sourced from Statto.^[2]

Football League Fourth Division

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
19 August 1978	Scunthorpe United	H	2–2	3,027	Wright, Bromage
22 August 1978	Wimbledon	A	0–1	2,638
25 August 1978	Crewe Alexandra	A	5–1	4,413	Wright (3), Bloor, Beamish
2 September 1978	Rochdale	H	1–1	3,222	Beamish
9 September 1978	Aldershot	H	1–1	3,045	Beamish
12 September 1978	Doncaster Rovers	A	3–1	3,405	Bromage, Todd, Beamish
16 September 1978	Portsmouth	A	0–2	9,937
23 September 1978	Bournemouth	H	1–2	3,140	Griffiths (pen)
26 September 1978	Northampton Town	H	2–2	3,245	N.Chamberlain (2)
30 September 1978	Hereford United	A	0–1	3,963
7 October 1978	Grimsby Town	H	1–1	3,433	N.Chamberlain
14 October 1978	Halifax Town	A	3–0	1,591	Wright (2), Tully
18 October 1978	Bradford City	A	3–2	4,136	Sutcliffe, Wright, Healy
21 October 1978	Torquay United	H	1–2	4,108	Todd
28 October 1978	Darlington	A	0–4	1,793
4 November 1978	Hartlepool United	H	2–0	3,195	N.Chamberlain, Beech
11 November 1978	Rochdale	A	1–0	1,882	Keenan
18 November 1978	Crewe Alexandra	H	2–2	4,607	Farrell (pen), Healy
9 December 1978	Stockport County	H	2–1	3,689	Wright, Farrell (pen)
26 December 1978	Barnsley	A	2–6	10,532	Todd, Keenan
30 December 1978	Newport County	A	0–1	4,075
1 January 1979	Huddersfield Town	H	1–0	4,021	Wright
9 January 1979	Wigan Athletic	H	2–1	3,746	Wright, Todd
13 January 1979	Aldershot	A	1–1	3,708	Sinclair
16 January 1979	Doncaster Rovers	H	1–3	3,381	o.g.
6 February 1979	Bournemouth	A	1–3	3,416	o.g.
24 February 1979	Halifax Town	H	0–1	3,117
3 March 1979	Torquay United	A	2–2	1,711	Todd, Wright
10 March 1979	Darlington	H	2–1	2,566	Hawkins, Beech
13 March 1979	Northampton Town	A	0–1	1,572
21 March 1979	Portsmouth	H	0–0	2,738
24 March 1979	Wimbledon	H	1–0	2,906	Beech
27 March 1979	Scunthorpe United	A	0–2	1,580
31 March 1979	Reading	A	0–0	6,704
3 April 1979	Grimsby Town	A	0–1	8,072
7 April 1979	York City	H	0–0	2,712
13 April 1979	Wigan Athletic	A	3–5	8,452	Todd (2), Wright
14 April 1979	Barnsley	H	3–2	5,226	N.Chamberlain, Wright, Todd
16 April 1979	Huddersfield Town	A	2–3	3,236	M.Chamberlain, Beech
21 April 1979	Newport County	H	1–1	2,444	Wright
24 April 1979	Bradford City	H	2–1	2,264	Farrell, N.Chamberlain
27 April 1979	Stockport County	A	0–0	3,345
1 May 1979	Hereford United	H	1–1	2,160	Hawkins
5 May 1979	Reading	H	0–3	3,603
7 May 1979	York City	A	0–4	2,344
10 May 1979	Hartlepool United	A	2–1	2,007	Sinclair, Farrell

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1	25 November 1978	Bradford City	A	0–1	5,625

League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1 1st Leg	12 August 1978	Chester	H	0–3	2,819
R1 2nd Leg	16 August 1978	Chester	A	1–1	3,741	Wright

Player statistics

Appearances Pos. Name Football League FA Cup League Cup Total Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals GK John Connaughton 19 0 1 0 2 0 22 0 GK Trevor Dance 27 0 0 0 0 0 27 0 DF Neil Griffiths 26 1 0 0 1 0 27 1 DF David Harris 11 0 1 0 1 0 13 0 DF Phil Sproson 23 0 1 0 1 0 25 0 DF Graham Hawkins 43 2 1 0 2 0 46 2 DF Bill Bentley 31 0 1 0 2 0 34 0 DF Neil Wilkinson 7 0 0 0 2 0 9 0 DF Gerry Keenan 32 2 1 0 0 0 33 2 DF Bob Delgado 24 0 0 0 0 0 24 0 MF John Ridley 7 0 0 0 0 0 7 0 MF Terry Bailey 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 MF Kenny Beech 23 4 1 0 0 0 24 4 MF Peter Sutcliffe 8 1 0 0 0 0 8 1 MF Mick Moore 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 MF Russell Bromage 20 2 0 0 1 0 21 2 MF Andy Proudlove 5 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 MF Ged Stenson 11 0 0 0 2 0 13 0 MF Ken Todd 41 8 1 0 0 0 42 8 MF Kevin Tully 8 1 1 0 0 0 9 1 MF Mark Chamberlain 8 1 0 0 0 0 8 1 MF Peter Farrell 28 4 1 0 0 0 29 4 MF Ian Elsby 5 0 0 0 0 0 5 0 MF Alan Bloor 6 1 0 0 0 0 6 1 MF Felix Healy 23 2 1 0 0 0 24 2 FW Ken Beamish 6 4 0 0 2 0 8 4 FW John Froggatt 2 0 0 0 1 0 3 0 FW Neville Chamberlain 26 6 0 0 2 0 28 6 FW Bernie Wright 46 14 1 0 1 1 48 15 FW Brian Sinclair 18 2 0 0 0 0 18 2

Scorers All competitions Scorer Goals Bernie Wright 15 Ken Todd 8 Neville Chamberlain 6 Kenny Beech 4 Peter Farrell Ken Beamish Graham Hawkins 2 Gerry Keenan Felix Healy Brian Sinclair Russell Bromage Kevin Tully 1 Mark Chamberlain Alan Bloor Peter Sutcliffe Neil Griffiths League Scorer Goals Bernie Wright 14 Ken Todd 8 Neville Chamberlain 6 Kenny Beech 4 Peter Farrell Ken Beamish Graham Hawkins 2 Gerry Keenan Felix Healy Brian Sinclair Russell Bromage Kevin Tully 1 Mark Chamberlain Alan Bloor Peter Sutcliffe Neil Griffiths

References

1. Kent, Jeff (1990). "Surviving on a Shoestring (1969–1979)". The Valiants' Years: The Story Of Port Vale. Witan Books. pp. 227–257. ISBN 0-9508981-4-7.
2. Port Vale 1978–1979 : Results & Fixtures. Statto Organisation. Retrieved 28 April 2012.

• Kent, Jeff (1993). The Port Vale Record 1879-1993. Witan Books. ISBN 0-9508981-9-8.