A Vale View

Below is part of a preview of tonights game from onevalefan.co.uk

Hereford United in Numbers:

1. The number of games Hereford have lost at home this season. That was all the way back in August when they lost 2-0 at home to Grays Athletic, the runaway conference leaders.

5. The number of goals their top scorer, Daniel Carey-Bertram, has this season.

7. The number of games since Hereford last lost at home.

11. The number of minutes when Ryan Day scored an own goal for Hereford in their 1-0 win over Mansfield in the first round of this years LDV Vans Trophy.

2,498. The attendance at their last home match, a 4-0 win against Woking.

Vale Connections:

Former Vale striker Lee Mills will be known to most Vale fans, having spent three years at Vale Park before finishing his career in professional football at Edgar Street. Saturday's goal scoring hero Michael Husbands, spent a short period in 2003 on loan to the Bulls from Aston Villa. During that time he made five substitute appearances and scored no goals. In fact, his goal on Saturday was his first ever league goal and he has only ever scored in a Port Vale shirt.

Form Guide
Last Results:
Port Vale 1-1 Swindon
Dag and Red 0-1 Hereford

Head-to-Head:
8 wins for Vale, 7 wins for Hereford and 7 draws. The last game ended in a 1-0 win for the Valiants at Vale Park way back in 1986.

Top Scorers:
Lowndes 5
Carey-Bertram 5

League Positions:
Port Vale 11th
Hereford 8th

Team News:

Hereford will still be without star keeper Wayne Brown, who suffered a hairline fracture of his wrist after the Woking game. It's believed that Graham Turner will be making a few changes to his team tonight as they look to rest a few players.

Simon Travis and Adam Stansfield are both pressing for their first starts since the start of September having just both recovered from injury. The central defensive partnership of Tamika Mkandawire and skipper Tony James has been improving a lot recently and they may carry on or Turner could choose to try out youngsters Blewett and Beckwith in their place. Daniel Carey-Bartram should return to the squad, but could start on the bench with Turner choosing to go with Andy Williams (Two goals in his last two games) and Guy Ipoua up front, a good combination of youth and experience.

For Port Vale, both Clayton Fortune and Leon Constantine are cup tied as they played in the previous round for their former clubs. Fortune played the first 75 minutes and Constantine came on as a sub. Vale will be hoping that Togwell, Mulligan and Cornes are all cleared to play by their respective clubs. Michael Husbands should start in place of Constantine but the back four could prove a problem with Steve Rowland the only fit replacement for Fortune.

He could however choose to bring in youth teamer Luke Prosser for his first start of the season, or move Tony Dinning to centre-back and bring in Joe Cardle on the left wing. However, if Mickey Bell fails to recover from injury then James may have to move to left back, leaving Foyle with yet another selection dilemma. Who says he has an easy job? Hopefully Chris Birchall may declare himself fit for the game and give Foyle extra midfield options.

A quartet of officials from the West Midlands will be in charge of todays encounter with Andy Penn being the target for abuse from both sets of fans and players no doubt. Neil Hancox and Patrick Keane will be running the lines while today's 4th official is Ian Evans.

Danger Man:

The one to watch out for will be Danny Carey-Bertram, who is the clubs top scorer and also an England National Game XI regular. He played and scored in their last game which was a 2-0 win against Belgium in the European Challenge Trophy. The 21 year old is described as having electrifying pace and will undoubtedly give Vale's back line plenty of problems.

Boo Boys:

There is no-one in the Hereford team that stands out so it's possible Vale fans could shamelessly boo their own players as some have been doing at recent matches. However, hopefully those fans will be tucked up in bed and the fans that do go can bring the rafters down as they cheer the team on!

And Finally:

It's legal to kill a Welshman within the city walls at night with a crossbow. We're not sure this ages old law has probably been repelled by now but we do believe OVF's favourite Welsh-born mutt One_Eyed_Dog will be in attendance at Edgar Street tonight!

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