1927–28 Port Vale F.C. season

The 1927–28 season was Port Vale's ninth consecutive season of football (22nd overall) in the English Football League.^[1] Aiming to improve on the previous campaign's mid-table finish, manager Joe Schofield guided the club to 8th place with 45 points – a modest improvement in both league position and total points. However, Wilf Kirkham's goal tally fell sharply from 41 to 14 goals, though he still ended the season as the club's top scorer for the third year running.

The team were notably more consistent at the Old Recreation Ground, but continued to struggle away from home. The season consisted of alternating streaks of good and poor form. In the FA Cup, Vale were knocked out in the Third Round, losing to Blackburn Rovers. Financial issues again loomed in the background, with the club needing to raise funds to balance the books despite a respectable level of support from the fanbase.

The pre-season saw the players enjoy an outing at Rhyl, where "music and mirth held sway". The trip helped new signings Alf Bennett (Nottingham Forest), David Rollo (Blackburn Rovers), Alex Trotter (South Shields), and Robert Gillespie (Luton Town) settle in.^[1]

The season started terribly, with an opening day draw with Nottingham Forest and four consecutive defeats, including 4–0 losses at Bristol City and Preston North End.^[1] The team was changed around, with new signing Rollo dropped from the starting eleven; this helped the Vale to turn things around with convincing wins over Bristol City and Swansea.^[1] Billy Briscoe fractured his cheekbone against Bristol City, though he refused to leave the pitch for treatment. A third 4–0 away loss followed at Fulham, as did more injuries, along with cash offers from rival clubs for their best players.^[1] By mid-October, a settled side was formed, and the "Valiants" defeated derby rivals Stoke 2–0 in front of a record 31,493 crowd at the Victoria Ground.^[1] Going from strength to strength they travelled to Bloomfield Road and went from 1–0 down to 6–1 up within an amazing 25-minute spell.^[1] Three more victories followed until Christmas saw a downturn in form.^[1] Two runs of four straight wins were punctuated by a 3–0 defeat at Grimsby Town and a 1–1 draw with Chelsea. This run included a 6–1 win over Blackpool on 3 December when Vale scored all six goals in 25 minutes. A 4–1 win at home to West Bromwich Albion saw the team go into Christmas sixth in the table with three points to gain on the promotion places.^[1]

Five consecutive post-Christmas defeats to four promotion candidates ended the Vale's promotion campaign.^[1] Consecutive defeats to Leeds United also saw the team lose goalkeeper Alf Bennett to a fractured knuckle. In February, Wilf Kirkham was eventually rested, and replacement Stewart Littlewood bagged five in two games to end the run of poor results, including a hat-trick in a 4–1 win over Fulham.^[1] Littlewood had previously scored 70 goals for the reserves in just over a season and brought the necessary firepower to help the club surge up the league.^[1] Manager Schofield had something of a headache in choosing either the out-of-form legend Kirkham or consistent Littlewood and only added to the conundrum by signing Blackpool forward Bert Fishwick.^[1] Nobody managed to score in the 0–0 draw with Stoke City on 17 March, denying their promotion-chasing rivals an important second point. Following defeats to doomed South Shields and to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, they finished the season with six consecutive clean sheets, though they only won three of these games.^[1]

They finished in ninth place with 44 points, almost in the same spot they had finished in the past two seasons. The defence had tightened up, but the attack, especially top-scorer Kirkham, had been somewhat off the boil.^[1] This led to Jack Lowe, Sidney Blunt, and Alex Trotter all being handed free transfers; they left for Oldham Athletic, Shrewsbury Town, and Manchester Central respectively.^[1] Meanwhile, back-up keepers Matthews and Holdcroft were also released, the former went to Halifax Town; however, the latter would eventually find himself an England international and FA Cup winner at Preston North End.^[1]

On the financial side, the directors wished to leave the Old Recreation Ground for new and bigger stadia. However, attempts to move to the greyhound track at Sun Street were blocked by Stoke City, who claimed the Vale would be too close to them.^[1] Overall the club lost £1,051 on the season, with their income £1,155 lower than the previous campaign.^[1]

In the FA Cup, Vale breezed past league rivals Barnsley and Third Division North New Brighton with two 3–0 home victories.^[1] Yet they came unstuck at Ewood Park, First Division Blackburn Rovers won 2–1 and would go on to win the final.^[1]

Key to positions: GK – Goalkeeper; FB – Full back; HB – Half back; FW – Forward

Specific

General

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