Port Vale finished their League Two campaign at promoted Bury on Saturday with a hard-earned point in front of close to one thousand travelling Valiants.
The team received a standing ovation before and after the match as well as tremendous vocal support throughout the game in a defiant show of loyalty which defies belief after three years of almost terminal decline and a fifth from the bottom finish of the EFL which is the joint-lowest in Port Vale’s history.
The fact that Vale took such fervent support to a meaningless game at the end of one of their worst ever seasons must surely have impressed potential new owners Kevin and Carol Shanahan as they watched the action amongst the fans in the away section at Gigg Lane.
According to local media reports, the couple, who own a Burslem-based IT company which employs three hundred and sixty people, are close to taking over the reins from detested current owner Norman Smurthwaite, with news expected this week on the completion of what has proved to be a long drawn out process.
Vale fans, hardened by repeated disappointments, will no doubt only believe it when all parties have signed on the bottom line but there was a sense on Saturday that the club may well be entering a new more optimistic era.
If the Shanahans do take control, it will undoubtedly take time to turn Vale around after the years of decline under Smurthwaite but if Saturday’s showing is anything to go by they will be helped by an enormous amount of goodwill from a fanbase desperate to see the club heading in the right direction.
Our View
Our fingers are well and truly crossed hoping that Vale fans get the news they crave and the Shanahans take control this week.
Port Vale is a well-supported club that has been driven into the ground by the current regime.
When the club does start heading once again in the right direction, it will be those fans at Bury who deserve all the credit and will enjoy the success all the more for sticking with the club through some dark times.
