Impressive win comes at a cost

A look at Port Vale on and off the pitch after the 2-1 win at home to Salford

Antwoine Hackford is congratulated on his goal against Salford by Ronan Curtis and Rekeem Harper. Pic by Gerard Austin

Hello and welcome to our Sunday edition of The Valiant for February 23.

Vale kept pace in the promotion race with a 2-1 win at home to Salford, but are counting the cost of victory after Ronan Curtis was sent off moments after the full-time whistle following an altercation.

The red card and looming ban adds to the problems up front after Jayden Stockley missed the game with a rib injury and Lorent Tolaj was also forced out after he was injured in training.

Curtis had arguably been Vale’s best player with a performance that included playing in Antwoine Hackford to confidently drill the ball past keeper Jamie Jones for the opener on 43 minutes.

Hackford had been denied by a brilliant save from Jones earlier in the half but Vale’s superiority was rewarded with a second goal, on 52 minutes, as Kyle John’s ball into the area broke to Rekeem Harper who hammered it past Jones.

The visitors were given hope when Haji Mnoga was brought down in the area by George Byers on 77 minutes and Hakeeb Adelakun ignored the forest of flashlights and waving arms in the Hamil to send Ben Amos the wrong way from the spot.

But 2-1 flattered the visitors and Vale saw out the game without further alarms to stay sixth in the table, just two points outside the automatic promotion places with a game in hand on third-placed AFC Wimbledon.

If you are interested in subscribing, we offer a minimum of 150 editions over 12 months from the day you sign up. That’s less than 27p an edition for that £40 fee. There’s also a monthly option and a free trial available. Or, if you’d like to see more about what we do, our 200th edition was free and is available here.

If you are already a subscriber then thanks for your support and please read on for edition number 245.