Football Season Review

Port Vale started the season following a risky summer which saw them appoint a manager without previous experience in England in Bruno Ribeiro and allowing the Portuguese to completely reshuffle their squad, as he let a lot of their proven players leave, while bringing in mostly continental players, with no experience of playing in England. This controversial approach actually looked like it might work in the first quarter of the season as, despite being abysmal on their travels, the Vale were nearly perfect at home and were inside the top six. However, their performances were hardly impressive during that period and they soon started to get a bitter taste or reality, as they went on a winless run, with the club chairman publicly criticising Ribeiro on several occasions, with the Portuguese manager resigning on Boxing Day. What followed his resignation was another questionable decision by the club, as they opted to promote assistant manager Michael Brown, who was still registered as a player, as their manager until the end of the season, and showed absolutely no intention to take a different direction even when it became obvious that they would be heading to League Two. Brown, who had to battle significant injury problems during the majority of his tenure, managed to keep the Vale's battle going into the final round of the season, but his men were unable to beat Fleetwood away and eventually went down, leaving their fans furious, with most of them agreeing that the relegation was caused by what they perceive as gross mismanagement by the club's hierarchy.

Player of the Season: Nathan Smith