16:00 Port Vale – Crewe

The Valiants have won 4 from their last 5 games at home,all where by a single goal,two of those wins came against promotion candidates Rochdale and Sheffield united,only Bristol City and Swindon have accumulated the same amount of points during the same time frame,today, they will meet one of the leagues worst travelers,Crewe, in what amounts to a local derby (12.7 miles between the two clubs),with an away record of 2-2-8 the Railwaymen would be 23rd of the 24 teams,last week they lost to Notts County,that was the 3rd loss in their last 4!

With regards to Port Vale sam news,Tom Pope could return to the starting 11,the striker has scored 66 goals for the club in 177 games,he recently missed 13 matches with a knee injury and is reported to be raring to go,Ryan McGivern (defense) who´s been nursing an injured arm is nearing a return,whether today is too early remains to be seen,coach Rob Page has several options if he chooses to rotate part of his team,with Chris Lines, Colin Daniel, Byron Moore and Dany N'Guessan being the most obvious options.

A big loss for Crewe is Jon Guthrie (knee),he had to be replaced at half time in last weeks loss at Notts County,Adam Dugdale replaced him on that occasion and is most likely to do so again today,other defensive options would be George Ray or Anthony Stewart,club captain Matt Tootle continuees to be sidelined with an ankle injury,on a positive note,manager Steve Davis could call back midfielder Brad Inman,he had to sit it out last week with flu!

It´s fair to say that Crewe have a decent record at Vale Park but league positions don´t lie at this time of the season,9 points separate the two clubs and that goes up to 15 if we take the home form of Vale and compare it to the away results of Crewe,team news is another consideration has it firmly favors the hosts,if Vale win today they move into the top 6!