Tom Scragg

Striker - Free Agent
14 Sep 2027
Tuesday
Process

Marked for Tom Scragg

46 Edition

The Port Vale Herald

14 Jun 2027
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

The knee: Jayden Stockley out for 146 days

146 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Port Vale lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Market

Sam Hart puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Port Vale, and it is not being withdrawn.

Transfer targets

Door shut on Demarai Gray

Port Vale asked and Birmingham said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Squad

The step up is real for Tom Scragg

At 22 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.

Squad

Words at Port Vale training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kyle John 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.

The dugout

Liam Gordon gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

Words exchanged at Port Vale

Nicholas Williams and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Market

The George Hall question follows Port Vale around

Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with George Hall’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.

The dugout

Rico Richards has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Port Vale will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

Back issues
34 Edition

The Port Vale Herald

22 Mar 2027
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Martin Sherif, 20, plays like he has been here for years — 7.78

A mark of 7.78 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 20-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.

Squad

Tom Scragg is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 22 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

Port Vale count the cost of losing Andre Gray

66 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Martin Sherif

At 20 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Match

Martin Sherif the difference as Port Vale beat Burton Albion

Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Martin Sherif. 1‑0 against Burton Albion, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.

The dugout

No hiding place for Kyle John

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Kyle John, and the manager let it.

Squad

A row about effort at Port Vale

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and George Byers was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

Squad

Mason Terry in a row with a teammate

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.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Michael Moore kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.

In brief

19 Edition

The Port Vale Herald

7 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Player ratings

Vintage Onel Hernández — 7.90

At 33 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.90, and nobody on the pitch better.

Match

Still nobody has beaten Port Vale

The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Squad

Tom Scragg is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Squad

Words exchanged at Port Vale

George Byers and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Squad

Oliver Fraser signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Oliver Fraser commits to Port Vale for another 3 years.

Match

Two points walk out of the ground

Level with 89 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Port Vale had all but put away. Burton Albion will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.

Squad

Costly mistake from Marko Maroši

An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Marko Maroši knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.

Match

Port Vale share the spoils with Burton Albion

A 2‑2 draw with Burton Albion leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

Match

Port Vale share the spoils with Wigan Athletic

A 1‑1 draw with Wigan Athletic leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

In brief

8 Edition

The Port Vale Herald

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Ben Amos is the hero from the spot

A shoot-out is remembered by its ending, and this one ends with Ben Amos: 3 kept out, and a set of supporters who will describe every one of them for the next twenty years.

Match

Port Vale bow out of the cup

Exeter City go through and Port Vale go home, 0‑0 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.

Squad

Tempers go at Port Vale

Erik Sviatchenko was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

Squad

Tom Scragg is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

Player ratings

Onel Hernández was unplayable

Successful dribbles: 21. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.

Squad

Rui Costa falls out with a teammate over standards

The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.

Match

Wycombe Wanderers take the points off Port Vale

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

Player ratings

The kick that got away from Andre Gray

Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.

The dugout

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 1‑2 Michael Moore left the room before anybody could ask which.

In brief