Team News:
Jean-Louis Akpa Akpro is back in training. However, after picking up a knee injury in last month’s game with Accrington, Richard Brindley still remains in doubt to feature.
Despite good progress in their recoveries, a knee injury is likely to maintain Elliott Johnson and Dave Tarpey’s place on the side-lines.
Harry Taylor is still out with a broken metatarsal sustained in the Bees’ trip to Chesterfield.
Last Time We Met:
The Bees failed to climb out of the relegation zone when they last met Port Vale after a Tom Pope penalty secured a 1-0 win for the hosts at Vale Park.
Jamie Stephens prevented the hosts from taking an 11th minute lead when he denied Pope the chance to break the deadlock.
Both sides had the opportunity to go one up after the break but the three points were to be Vale’s when referee Anthony Blackhouse pointed to the spot with 11 minutes of normal time remaining. It was Valiants’ number nine who fired home.
Manager:
Neil Aspin, who featured over 300 times for Vale between 1989 and 1999, took charge of the club at the start of October.
The 52-year-old began his managerial tenure at Harrogate Town in 2005 and after four years at the helm, he left for Halifax Town.
Before succeeding Michael Brown as manager at Vale Park, Aspin spent two years at National League side Gateshead.
Dangerman:
Midfielder David Worrall joined Vale in the summer on a two-year deal after his contract was mutually cancelled by previous club Millwall.
The 27-year-old has four goals to his name this season in 31 league appearances. Worrall isn’t afraid to put in a tackle and his 32 shots so far this season shows he has an eye for goal too.
Alongside Millwall, Worrall has also spent time at West Brom, Bury, Rotherham United and Southend United along with loan spells at Accrington Stanley, Shrewsbury Town and Oldham Athletic.
The midfielder also scored Vale’s only goal in their previous game away at Grimsby.
Last Time Out:
Port Vale travelled to fellow league strugglers Grimsby Town in their last outing on Saturday.
A 10th minute David Worrall goal wasn’t enough to take maximum points back to Stoke-on-Trent as Mariners midfielder James Berrett equalised in stoppage time.
Ultimately, Vale failed to overtake Grimsby and remain 22nd, six points adrift of the bottom two.
Ticket info:
Supporters can find out more about tickets details here.
Keep up with the game:
Full match commentary from every game is available on iFollow. If you are based outside of the UK & Ireland, you can watch the game live on iFollow.
You can also get live match updates on Twitter throughout the afternoon. We are also on Facebook and will go behind the scenes on our Instagram.
