2003–04 Port Vale F.C. season

Port Vale

2003–04 season
Chairman	Bill Bratt
Manager	Brian Horton (until February) Martin Foyle (February onwards)
Stadium	Vale Park
Football League Second Division	7th (73 Points)
FA Cup	Second Round
League Cup	First Round
League Trophy	First Round
Player of the Year	Stephen McPhee
Top goalscorer	League: Stephen McPhee (25) All: Stephen McPhee (27)
Highest home attendance	7,958 vs. Sheffield Wednesday (7 February 2004)
Lowest home attendance	4,016 vs. Ford United (8 November 2003)
Average home league attendance	5,810
Home colours
← 2002–03 2004–05 →

The 2003–04 season was Port Vale's 92nd season of football in the Football League, and fourth successive season (41st overall) in the Second Division. Brian Horton resigned in February, and was replaced by Martin Foyle. Vale fought for promotion, but finished outside the play-off zone on goal difference. In the FA Cup, Vale narrowly avoided humiliation by beating non-league Ford United after the replay went to extra-time. However Vale exited at the Second Round with defeat to Conference club Scarborough, who also knocked the Vale out of the League Trophy at the First Round. Vale also left the League Cup at the First Round stage. Stephen McPhee was Player of the Year and top-scorer with 27 goals, but he left the club at the end of the season to play abroad. Financial problems still hounded the club, and Chairman Bill Bratt was desperate to attract investment from fans,^[1] though he was unwilling to allow one person to have more than 50% of the club's shares.^[2]

Overview

Second Division

The pre-season saw Brian Horton bring in three key players on free transfers: George Pilkington (Everton);^[3] Jonny Brain (Newcastle United);^[4] and Austrian Andreas Lipa (Skoda Xanthi).^[5] Meanwhile promising keeper Mark Goodlad began a lengthy period of time on the sidelines with injuries.^[6] Optimism surrounded the club, after the rebuilding of the new squad appeared to had finished after the break-up of the club's previous team due to financial troubles.^[7]

The season opened with seven wins in eleven games, earning Brian Horton the Manager of the Month award.^[8] Though this was followed by a sequence of five defeats in eight games as the goals dried up, this run included a 5–1 thumping at home to Plymouth Argyle. In November, back-up keeper Dean Delany joined Macclesfield Town on a two month loan. Vale then were in patchy form until March, though the side managed to do the double over Sheffield Wednesday. Brian Horton resigned in February, with the club in the play-offs.^[9] His replacement was former Vale legend Martin Foyle, whose only previous experience was in the club's youth set-up.^[10] As his assistant he appointed former teammate, Dean Glover, another club legend.^[11] In March, Foyle made his first signing, bringing defender Craig James on loan from Sunderland,^[12] and after a few weeks he signed him permanently.^[13] Mark Boyd headed out of the club however, and was allowed to sign with Carlisle United. Vale lost just two of their final twelve games, and ran close to a play-off place, only losing out due to their inferior goal difference.

They finished in seventh place with 73 points. They were level on points with Hartlepool United and Swindon Town, but finished outside of the play-off zone due to their inferior goal difference. Stephen McPhee scored 27 goals to become the club's top-scorer, the highest tally since Andy Jones hit 37 in 1986–87. Other major contributions came from Billy Paynter (14), Steve Brooker (8), Marc Bridge-Wilkinson (7) and Adrian Littlejohn (7).

At the end of the season several players left the club: Neil Brisco (Rochdale); Liam Burns (Bristol Rovers); Adrian Littlejohn (Lincoln City); and Dean Delany (Shelbourne).^[14] Stephen McPhee also decided to leave the club, and though Chairman Bill Bratt had rejected offers of £100,000 for the player,^[15] McPhee exploited a loophole in his contract to join Portuguese side Beira-Mar.^[16] Marc Bridge-Wilkinson also turned down a new lower-paying contract, and instead signed with Stockport County.^[17] Player-coach Ian Brightwell also left Vale Park, having lost his assistant manager role to Glover,^[18] and joined Horton at Macclesfield Town.^[19] One boost was that Billy Paynter and George Pilkington put pen to paper on new long-term deals.^[20]

Finances

Peter Walker was appointed as Chief Executive in August 2003, having volunteered to work for free for six months. One feature of the season proved to be the long-running courtroom battle between former chairman Bill Bell and owners Valiant2001 over unpaid rent on the club shop. The club's finances were still worrying for supporters, though the problem appeared to have eased by the end of the season.^[21]

In December, a Peter Jackson led consortium put a £150,000 investment into the club, which Bratt said "...ensures the future of the club is safe".^[22] The club also rejected other investment proposals from confidential sources.^[23] Vice-chairman Charles Machin recommended the board sell the club to Italian businessman Gianni Paladini for £530,000, but the board disagreed.^[24] In March 2004, Machin and director Geoff Wakefield were voted off the board, as the 'Jackson Five' clique elected Peter Jackson and Stan Meigh in their place.^[24] Machin said that "I will not go away. I will haunt the corridors of power like Marley's ghost".^[24] However he was never elected back onto the board.^[24]

Cup competitions

In the FA Cup, Vale risked humiliation in a 2–2 draw with non-league Ford United at Vale Park.^[25] In the replay, Vale had led 1–0 before a last minute equalizer took the game into extra time. Despite having substitute Ian Armstrong's sent off, the "Valiants" escaped the lottery of the penalty shoot-out when on 114 minutes Ford scored an own goal.^[26] However in the Second Round they were still eliminated by a non-league club, when Scarborough's Ashley Sestanovich scored an 80th minute winner at Vale Park.^[27] This meant Scarborough knocked Vale out of the second competition of the season despite playing two leagues below the Vale.

In the League Cup, Vale faced First Division Nottingham Forest. They held Forest to a goalless draw, but were eliminated 3–2 in the subsequent penalty shoot-out.

In the League Trophy, Vale travelled to the McCain Stadium, where they were defeated 2–1 by Conference club Scarborough.^[28]

Final league table

			P	W	D	L	F	A	GD	Pts
C	1	Plymouth Argyle	46	26	12	8	85	41	+44	90
P	2	Queens Park Rangers	46	22	17	7	80	45	+35	83
	3	Bristol City	46	23	13	10	58	37	+21	82
P	4	Brighton & Hove Albion	46	22	11	13	64	43	+21	77
	5	Swindon Town	46	20	13	13	76	58	+18	73
	6	Hartlepool United	46	20	13	13	76	61	+15	73
	7	Port Vale	46	21	10	15	73	63	+10	73
	8	Tranmere Rovers	46	17	16	13	59	56	+3	67
	9	A.F.C. Bournemouth	46	17	15	14	56	51	+5	66
	10	Luton Town	46	17	15	14	69	66	+3	66
	11	Colchester United	46	17	13	16	52	56	-4	64
	12	Barnsley	46	15	17	14	54	58	-4	62
	13	Wrexham	46	17	9	20	50	60	-10	60
	14	Blackpool	46	16	11	19	58	65	-7	59
	15	Oldham Athletic	46	12	21	13	66	60	+6	57
	16	Sheffield Wednesday	46	13	14	19	48	64	-18	53
	17	Brentford	46	14	11	21	52	69	-17	53
	18	Peterborough United	46	12	16	18	58	58	0	52
	19	Stockport County	46	11	19	16	62	70	-8	52
	20	Chesterfield	46	12	15	19	49	71	-22	51
R	21	Grimsby Town	46	13	11	22	55	81	-26	50
R	22	Rushden & Diamonds	46	13	9	24	60	74	-14	48
R	23	Notts County	46	10	12	24	50	78	-28	42
R	24	Wycombe Wanderers	46	6	19	21	50	75	-25	37

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	H	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	H	A	A	H	H	A	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	H	H	A	H	H	A	A	A	A	H	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A
Result	W	W	W	L	W	D	W	L	W	D	W	L	L	L	W	D	L	W	L	D	D	W	D	L	W	W	L	L	W	W	L	W	L	L	D	W	D	W	D	L	W	L	D	W	W	W
Position	8	2	1	4	1	3	1	1	1	1	1	3	3	6	3	4	7	5	7	7	5	7	8	12	6	4	9	9	7	5	7	5	7	9	9	7	9	7	6	7	7	7	7	7	7	7

Sourced from Statto.^[29]

Football League Second Division

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
9 August 2003	A.F.C. Bournemouth	H	2–1	6,465	McPhee, Littlejohn
16 August 2003	Grimsby Town	A	2–1	4,816	McPhee, Paynter
23 August 2003	Colchester United	H	4–3	5,133	Collins, Paynter, Armstrong, McPhee
25 August 2003	Hartlepool United	A	0–2	5,314
30 August 2003	Brentford	H	1–0	5,257	Paynter
6 September 2003	Stockport County	A	2–2	5,316	Paynter, Collins
13 September 2003	Barnsley	H	3–1	7,809	Lipa, Pilkington, Littlejohn
16 September 2003	Luton Town	A	0–2	5,079
20 September 2003	Bristol City	A	1–0	11,369	Paynter
27 September 2003	Wycombe Wanderers	H	1–1	6,822	McPhee
30 September 2003	Peterborough United	H	3–0	5,495	McPhee (2), Collins
4 October 2003	Wrexham	A	1–2	5,822	Paynter
11 October 2003	Oldham Athletic	A	1–2	6,913	Bridge-Wilkinson (pen)
18 October 2003	Plymouth Argyle	H	1–5	5,786	McPhee
21 October 2003	Queens Park Rangers	H	2–0	5,243	Paynter, McPhee
25 October 2003	Swindon Town	A	0–0	5,313
1 November 2003	Chesterfield	A	0–1	4,088
15 November 2003	Notts County	H	1–0	4,900	McPhee
22 November 2003	Tranmere Rovers	A	0–1	7,081
29 November 2003	Rushden & Diamonds	H	1–1	4,586	Littlejohn
12 December 2003	Brighton & Hove Albion	A	1–1	5,811	Littlejohn
26 December 2003	Sheffield Wednesday	A	3–2	24,991	Littlejohn, Paynter, Brooker
28 December 2003	Stockport County	H	2–2	6,237	McPhee (2)
10 January 2004	A.F.C. Bournemouth	A	1–2	5,926	McPhee
14 January 2004	Blackpool	H	2–1	4,523	Brooker, Bridge-Wilkinson
17 January 2004	Grimsby Town	H	5–1	5,133	Bridge-Wilkinson (2), Lipa, Collins, Paynter
27 January 2004	Hartlepool United	H	2–5	4,845	Brooker, Cummins
31 January 2004	Brentford	A	2–3	4,306	McPhee (2)
7 February 2004	Sheffield Wednesday	H	3–0	7,958	Littlejohn, McPhee, Brooker
14 February 2004	Oldham Athletic	H	1–0	6,035	McPhee
21 February 2004	Plymouth Argyle	A	1–2	11,330	McPhee
24 February 2004	Colchester United	A	4–1	2,539	Brooker, Brown (og), Cummins, Bridge-Wilkinson
2 March 2004	Queens Park Rangers	A	2–3	12,593	Brooker, Littlejohn
6 March 2004	Blackpool	A	1–2	6,878	Paynter
13 March 2004	Brighton & Hove Albion	H	1–1	5,646	Paynter
16 March 2004	Luton Town	H	1–0	5,048	Cummins
20 March 2004	Barnsley	A	0–0	8,267
27 March 2004	Bristol City	H	2–1	6,724	Brooker, Bridge-Wilkinson
30 March 2004	Swindon Town	H	3–3	5,702	McPhee (2), Paynter
3 April 2004	Wycombe Wanderers	A	1–2	4,738	McPhee
10 April 2004	Wrexham	H	1–0	5,892	Cummins
12 April 2004	Peterborough United	A	1–3	4,988	Bridge-Wilkinson
17 April 2004	Chesterfield	H	1–1	5,582	Paynter
24 April 2004	Notts County	A	2–1	5,834	McPhee, Brooker
1 May 2004	Tranmere Rovers	H	2–1	6,806	McPhee (2)
8 May 2004	Rushden & Diamonds	A	2–0	5,240	McPhee (2)

FA Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1	8 November 2003	Ford United	H	2–2	4,016	McPhee, Burns
R1 Replay	19 November 2003	Ford United	A	2–1	?	Paynter, Chandler (og)
R2	7 December 2003	Scarborough	H	0–1	4,651

League Cup

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1	12 October 2003	Nottingham Forest	H	(2)0–0(3)	4,950

League Trophy

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
R1	14 October 2003	Scarborough	A	1–2	1,003	McPhee

Player statistics

Appearances Pos. Name Football League FA Cup League Cup Total Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals Apps Goals GK Mark Goodlad 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 GK Dean Delany 14 0 0 0 1 0 15 0 GK Jonny Brain 32 0 3 0 0 0 36 0 GK Joe Molloy 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 DF Liam Burns 27 0 3 1 0 0 30 1 DF Michael Walsh 13 0 0 0 1 0 14 0 DF Steve Rowland 29 0 0 0 0 0 30 0 DF Sam Collins 43 4 3 0 1 0 47 4 DF Ian Brightwell 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 0 DF George Pilkington 44 1 3 0 1 0 49 1 DF Craig James 8 0 0 0 0 0 8 0 DF Ryan Brown 17 0 0 0 1 0 18 0 DF Andreas Lipa 30 2 2 0 1 0 33 2 MF Neil Brisco 27 0 2 0 0 0 30 0 MF Micky Cummins 42 4 2 0 1 0 46 4 MF Marc Bridge-Wilkinson 32 7 2 0 1 0 36 7 MF Ian Armstrong 20 1 1 0 0 0 22 1 MF Chris Birchall 10 0 3 0 0 0 13 0 MF Levi Reid 11 0 3 0 0 0 14 0 MF Adrian Littlejohn 36 7 3 0 1 0 41 7 MF Mark Boyd 22 0 3 0 0 0 26 0 FW Billy Paynter 44 13 2 1 1 0 48 14 FW Steve Brooker 32 8 1 0 1 0 34 8 FW Stephen McPhee 46 25 3 1 1 0 51 27 FW Simon Eldershaw 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Scorers All competitions Scorer Goals Stephen McPhee 27 Billy Paynter 14 Steve Brooker 8 Marc Bridge-Wilkinson 7 Adrian Littlejohn Micky Cummins 4 Sam Collins Andreas Lipa 2 George Pilkington 1 Ian Armstrong Liam Burns League Scorer Goals Stephen McPhee 25 Billy Paynter 13 Steve Brooker 8 Marc Bridge-Wilkinson 7 Adrian Littlejohn Micky Cummins 4 Sam Collins Andreas Lipa 2 George Pilkington 1 Ian Armstrong

References

1. "Axe hovers over Valiants". BBC Sport. 10 December 2003. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
2. "Vale fans fail to buy club". BBC Sport. 22 December 2003. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
3. "Vale land Pilkington". BBC Sport. 24 June 2003. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
4. "Vale sign young keeper". BBC Sport. 22 August 2003. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
5. "Vale net Lipa". BBC Sport. 9 June 2003. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
6. "Goodlad blow for Vale". BBC Sport. 24 July 2003. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
7. "Port Vale season preview". BBC Sport. 5 August 2003. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
8. "Valiant Horton Picks Up Prize". LMA. Retrieved 12 April 2012.
9. "Horton leaves Port Vale". BBC Sport. 12 February 2004. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
10. "Port Vale appoint Foyle". BBC Sport. 13 February 2004. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
11. "Glover back at Vale". BBC Sport. 16 February 2004. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
12. "James joins Vale on loan". BBC Sport. 19 March 2004. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
13. "James signs Vale contract". BBC Sport. 2 April 2004. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
14. "Foyle releases Vale trio". BBC Sport. 11 May 2004. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
15. "Vale reject McPhee offer". BBC Sport. 4 June 2004. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
16. "McPhee moving to Portugal". BBC Sport. 17 June 2004. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
17. "Bridge-Wilkinson makes move". BBC Sport. 8 June 2004. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
18. "Vale search for new coach". BBC Sport. 26 May 2004. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
19. "Brightwell leaves Vale". BBC Sport. 25 May 2004. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
20. "Duo boost Port Vale". BBC Sport. 4 March 2004. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
21. "Financial boost for Vale". BBC Sport. 14 May 2004. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
22. "Consortium saves Port Vale". BBC Sport. 30 December 2003. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
23. "Vale set for takeover talks". BBC Sport. 15 December 2003. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
24. What If There Had Been No Port In The Vale?: Startling Port Vale Stories! p.179 (Witan Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-9529152-8-7)
25. "Port Vale 2-2 Ford Utd". BBC Sport. 8 November 2003. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
26. "Ford Utd 1-2 Port Vale (aet)". BBC Sport. 19 November 2003. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
27. "Port Vale 0-1 Scarborough". BBC Sport. 7 December 2003. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
28. "Scarborough 2-1 Port Vale". BBC Sport. 14 October 2003. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
29. Port Vale 2003–2004 : Results & Fixtures. Statto Organisation. Retrieved 28 April 2012.

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