Port Vale

The club was formed after a meeting in a suburb of Stoke-on-Trent at "Port Vale House" from which the name Port Vale FC was taken. In 1884 the club moved to Burslem (one of the five Potteries towns that make up Stoke) and became known as Burslem Port Vale. In 1892, the Football Alliance was incorporated into the Football League as Division Two. At the time, Port Vale were members of the Midland League but when Alliance club Birmingham St George's folded, it was Vale who were invited to take their place in the new Second Division. There is no record of why such a modest club received this promotion in its fortunes.

In 1896, having had to seek re-election for the third time in only four seasons, Burslem Port Vale lost their League status and returned to the Midland League. It is known that the club played in red shirts and "grey serge" knickers followed by amber and black during this period. After they beat First Division Sheffield United in the FA Cup, the club was elected back into the Second Division in 1898. They continued to struggle and in 1907, faced with serious financial problems, the club resigned from the League and almost went out of business. Only one year later, local rivals Stoke FC found themselves in the same position and resigned their place leaving the Potteries without a League club.

Following a move to a new ground, the club became known simply as Port Vale and joined the Central League. In 1919, Vale unsuccessfully applied for election to the League once again following a decision to expand the Second Division with four new clubs. In October 1919, however, the club was invited to take over the fixtures of Leeds City who had been expelled following a scandal over illegal payments.

Port Vale made little impact and were relegated in 1929 to Division Three (North) although they returned as champions the following season, going on to finish fifth in the Second Division in 1931, their highest ever league position. In 1936 they went down again and for the next eleven years they played variously in the Northern or Southern sections of the Third Division owing to their central location. Although the exact dateis not known, the club adopted plain white shirts sometime in the 1930s.

In 1954 Vale romped to the Third Division (North) championship and reached the FA Cup semi-final only to drop back into Division Three (South) in 1957.

It was in the 1956-57 season that the club crest was worn for the first time, based on the coat of arms of the Borough of Burslem, which itself contained elements taken from the arms of the six towns making up the Potteries. The scythe comes from the Tunstall arms, the fretted cross from those of Audley while the two pots represent the towns associated with Josiah Wedgewood.

The following season Vale were founder members of the new Fourth Division, winning the title at the first attempt. The early Sixties brought a revival of the amber and black stripes of an earlier era but there was little to celebrate on the pitch and the last half of the decade was spent in the Fourth Division. In 1968 they were expelled from the Football League because of financial irregularities, a replay of the sequence of events that had played out in 1919, but they were immediately voted back in by the clubs.

Crests were not fashionable in the latter part of the Sixties and Vale wore plain white shirts between 1966 and 1974 when Admiral introduced a strikingly novel top with striped sleeves. This featured a monogramme that was used on and off until 1981.

Promotion came in 1970 and eight seasons were spent in the Third Division before Vale dropped back into the Fourth in 1978. An unusual badge was worn during the relegation season but was thereafter dropped and the monogramme reinstated.

During the 1980s they were promoted and relegated with some regularity. A smart new crest was introduced in 1983: this retained the quartered shield of the original but now featured a Staffordshire knot and a bottle kiln (associated with the pottery industry). The blue quarters seem to be purely decorative.

It was as a Third Division club that Port Vale's fortunes improved in 1988. After beating Spurs in a Fourth Round FA Cup-tie, they secured promotion to Division Two via the play-offs. Despite a set back in 1992 when they were relegated, Vale bounced back in 1994 and remained in the second tier until 2000 when they were relegated to Nationwide Division Two.

Vale went into administration in 2002 with debts in the region of £1.5m and was eventually taken over by the Valiant 2001 consortium who established a new board representing supporters. The club finally came out of administration in 2003-04. Due in part to the financial restrictions imposed, the team slid down the divisions and in 2008 they were in the fourth tier (League Two).