Martin Sherif scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑3 to Blackpool, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Port Vale training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bruno Moreira is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Dajaune Brown and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Oliver Hunter left the room before anybody could ask which.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Connor Hall has his answer from Port Vale; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Port Vale told Jack Shorrock something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rui Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Martin Sherif has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
A 1‑0 win over Huddersfield Town, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Port Vale dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Port Vale this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad2 Nov 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Jack Shorrock
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Jack Shorrock has come out of that comparison in the side, and Port Vale have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
0‑3 to AFC Wimbledon, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
At 21 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Brentford have kept their man, and Port Vale go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Bruno Moreira was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑3, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Rui Costa was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Paul Harvey is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. George Atkinson has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. David Hamilton has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Liam Russell has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Port Vale this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.