Match Report:
Port Vale 1 City 0

Defeat on the road for the Grecians

Ten-man City were beaten 1-0 at Port Vale on a disappointing afternoon at Vale Park.

It was a dismal afternoon for the Grecians as they lost on the road, with the Valiants only goal coming from Will Forrester after Rekeem Harper saw red. Following on from Tuesdays 0-0 at home to Shrewsbury and City’s third game in a week, Gary made a few changes for the visit to Vale Park. Coming in to the starting XI were Jake Caprice, Pierce Sweeney, Harper, Sam Nombe and James Scott for his full debut. Making the bench after his short spell with an injury was also Jamal Blackman, with Kevin McDonald absent for personal reasons. City started the game on the front foot controlling the possession in the opening five minutes. A lovely bit of link up play between Sweeney and Harry Kite down the right-hand side, found the later sending a searching ball into the area, but no one in a blue shirt was there to tuck it away. There was a massive let off for City in the 8th minute as the Valiants found a way to put the ball past Gary Woods in the City goal but thankfully the linesman had his flag up and the goal was ruled out for offside. With 15 minutes on the clock, a quick dinked free kick from Port Vale caught out the City defence with Matty Taylor getting in behind and getting a shot away on target. But Woods was there to make an excellent reflex save to keep the score at 0-0. Halfway through the first half and the home side had a huge shout for a penalty but a textbook challenge from City’s captain Will Aimson ensured the referee had no reason to doubt not awarding it. Seconds later and this time the home side were awarded a foul, Alex Hartridge found himself the wrong side of the attacker and then found himself in the referee’s book, picking up the first yellow of the game. That was that for the first half with both sides unable to find the back of the net, with all the highlights in the opening 45 coming from Woods who made two brilliant saves to keep City in the game. After going down in the last few minutes of the first half, Hartridge was replaced by Jonathan Grounds at half time, in a straight swap on the left-hand side of the back three. Only a few minutes into the second half and Woods made another astounding save to deny Port Vale taking the lead, a training ground free kick routine from City had Matty Taylor having a shot on target, but Woods was able to punch away.