A Good Friday for Vale

Usually once or twice a season my friend Del and I exchange trips to see our respective teams play. This season I was to be entertained with the Good Friday match at Aldershot.

It's rare my appearances at a Port Vale match have the same good luck as Del's reciprocal visits to Craven Cottage. However it has to be said my visits are, with one exception usually, to Port Vale's away matches. I expect, given their chronic away form, the outcomes would not be too dissimilar were we to try a Fulham away match.

However, on this occasion I was treated to an all too rare Port Vale victory. Louis Dodds was the hero of the day scoring both goals in the two - one victory. The Aldershot consolation came from a deflection late in the game. At least with Port Vale having the run of play it silenced the incessant beating of drums coming from the away fans stand. Its was enough to make you want to beat your head against a wall. 

Being used to visiting a Premier League ground does spoil you in that many of the teams from the lower divisions can barely survive financially. This often shows in some of the grounds I have visited which are part way through renovations they've not been able to afford completion of. Aldershots ground being no exception to that with only having about two and a half usable stands.

(c Rotton Yarns)

(c Rotton yarns)

(c Rotton Yarnns)

The trip down to Aldershot on the train was quite interesting, just running into Kings Cross we saw the first of three foxes we were to see on the trip. It was the second leg of the journey from Waterloo to Aldershot via Woking that was the most interesting. Due to Bank Holiday engineering works, the train had to take on convoluted route via local branch lines for much of the way. This entailed it travelling so slowly that butterflies were easily identifiable as the fluttered along the track side vegetation in the warm spring sun. We managed to see a few orange tips and brimstones, along with another couple of foxes on the trip.