Port Vale

1924–25 season
Chairman	Sampson Walker
Manager	Joe Schofield
Stadium	The Old Recreation Ground
Football League Second Division	8th (42 Points)
FA Cup	First Round (knocked out by Aston Villa)
Top goalscorer	League: Wilf Kirkham (26) All: Wilf Kirkham (33)
Highest home attendance	17,936 vs. Stoke, 24 January 1925
Lowest home attendance	5,000 vs. Southampton, 13 October 1924
Average home league attendance	10,769+
Biggest win	8–2 vs. Alfreton, 13 December 1924
Biggest defeat	0–7 vs. Leicester City, 25 December 1924
Home colours
← 1923–24 1925–26 →

The 1924–25 season was Port Vale's sixth consecutive season of football (19th overall) in the English Football League.^[1] A highly successful season, for the first time in their history they finished above rivals Stoke. Vale's eighth-place finish in the second tier was their best finish since 1893–94. Throughout the 20th century, this finish would be bettered only in 1930–31 (they would finish third in the Second Division in 1992–93, however, by then the Second Division was the third tier in the Football League behind the Premier League).

Their success was down primarily to the goalscoring efforts of young Wilf Kirkham, who netted 33 goals in 44 games. This was combined with a settled team, which saw just fifteen regular players supplemented by seven reserve players.

The pre-season saw the arrival of three new players: veteran Everton goalkeeper Tom Fern, young half-back Sidney Blunt, and winger Billy Tempest made the leap from Stoke to Vale.^[1]

The season started with a lose-one-win-one sequence of six games; significantly, the final game of this sequence was a 1–0 win over Stoke at the Victoria Ground, Bob Connelly scoring the goal.^[1] The "Valiants" followed this with five games without a win, and "a certain section of the crowd" became "prone to gibe and jeer at mistakes", which had a noticeable effect on the side's confidence.^[1] Goals were a problem, and so the directors decided to sell full-back Len Birks to Sheffield United for 'a substantial sum', promising to spend the money on forwards.^[1] They duly signed Alfred Strange from Portsmouth.^[1]

The team bobbed along at mid-table and, on 20 December, were expected to be turned over by promotion-chasing Manchester United; however, Vale managed to record a 2–1 win.^[1] The difficult games continued, as two games in as many days came against eventual champions Leicester City; they were thumped 7–0 at Filbert Street on Christmas Day.^[1] Johnny Duncan scored six of the "Foxes" seven goals (a Leicester record).^[2]

The second half of the season would be a brilliant one for the club. They won ten of their first thirteen league games of 1925, including a 2–0 win over Stoke at The Old Recreation Ground – former "Potter" Tempest getting a goal against his former employers.^[1] The defence was solid, keeping clean sheets in nine of these thirteen games.

Whilst on the South Coast of England the players were rewarded for their hard work with a relaxing holiday, seeing sights such as the Isle of Wight, the Southampton docks, HMS Victory, the Newbury races, and music hall star Gertie Gitana performing at the theatre.^[1] Following this, manager Joe Schofield took advantage of a comfortable league position by experimenting with his starting eleven.^[1] Just four points were picked up from their last nine games, this included a 1–0 defeat at Stamford Bridge in front of 30,000 and a 4–0 defeat at Old Trafford in front of 40,000.^[1] However, Kirkham did bag his third hat-trick of the season against Stockport County.^[1]

At the end of the season, Vale picked up a club record 42 Football League points, with Kirkham scoring 26 league goals.^[1] Outside of Kirkham, however, the club were finding difficulties in front of goal and had to be much more prolific to challenge for promotion.^[1] They were fifteen points off the top two and eight points clear of the bottom two.

Jack Lowe was an ever-present in both league and cup, whereas Kirkham and Briscoe each missed just one game. Fern, Connelly, and Blunt also were highly consistent. At the end of the campaign, all of the first-team performers were retained.^[1]

The club finally found themselves on a sound financial footing, making a record £4,469 profit on the campaign.^[1] The club debt went down to £134, and the club decided to purchase The Old Recreation Ground outright, putting down a deposit of £2,250.^[1]

In the FA Cup, the Vale managed to qualify for the First Round Proper for the first time since 1921–22. Kirkham and Briscoe scored a combined total of ten goals in the games against Midland League Boston and Central Alliance side Alfreton, with Strange contributing three.^[1] This set up a difficult encounter with First Division Aston Villa at Villa Park, and Vale were easily outclassed in the second-half, despite leading 1–0 at the break, they finished the game with a 7–2 defeat.^[1] The nine goals scored amounted to a club record aggregate score in the competition.

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GAv	Pts
6	Wolverhampton Wanderers	42	20	6	16	55	51	1.078	46
7	Southampton	42	13	18	11	40	36	1.111	44
8	Port Vale	42	17	8	17	48	56	0.857	42
9	South Shields	42	12	17	13	42	38	1.105	41
10	Hull City	42	15	11	16	50	49	1.020	41

Port Vale's score comes first

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Scorers
30 August 1924	Wolverhampton Wanderers	H	1–3	15,000	Page
6 September 1924	Barnsley	A	3–1	8,000	Kirkham (2), Briscoe
8 September 1924	Fulham	H	0–1	10,000
13 September 1924	Middlesbrough	H	2–1	6,000	Kirkham, Briscoe
15 September 1924	Portsmouth	H	0–2	9,000
20 September 1924	Stoke	A	1–0	22,747	Connelly
27 September 1924	Bradford City	A	1–1	10,000	Briscoe
4 October 1924	South Shields	H	0–0	10,180
11 October 1924	Derby County	A	1–4	18,000	Kirkham
13 October 1924	Southampton	H	1–1	5,000	Kirkham
18 October 1924	Blackpool	H	1–2	10,000	Kirkham
25 October 1924	Coventry City	H	4–0	7,965	Kirkham (2), Maddock (pen), Connelly
1 November 1924	Oldham Athletic	A	0–2	3,000
8 November 1924	The Wednesday	H	1–0	9,018	Kirkham
15 November 1924	Clapton Orient	A	1–3	10,000	Briscoe
22 November 1924	Crystal Palace	H	3–0	8,147	Kirkham (2), Strange
6 December 1924	Chelsea	H	1–1	11,975	Briscoe
20 December 1924	Manchester United	H	2–1	14,000	Lowe, Kirkham
25 December 1924	Leicester City	A	0–7	22,000
26 December 1924	Leicester City	H	1–2	17,000	Kirkham
27 December 1924	Wolverhampton Wanderers	A	0–3	8,000
3 January 1925	Barnsley	H	2–0	7,654	Kirkham, Page
17 January 1925	Middlesbrough	A	1–0	6,000	Page
24 January 1925	Stoke	H	2–0	17,936	Kirkham, Tempest
2 February 1925	Bradford City	H	1–0	6,000	o.g.
7 February 1925	South Shields	A	0–3	10,000
14 February 1925	Derby County	H	2–1	16,000	Kirkham (2 [1 pen])
25 February 1925	Stockport County	A	2–0	3,000	Kirkham (2)
28 February 1925	Coventry City	A	0–0	9,000
7 March 1925	Oldham Athletic	H	1–0	11,005	Page
14 March 1925	The Wednesday	A	1–0	12,000	Kirkham
21 March 1925	Clapton Orient	H	4–2	10,000	Kirkham (3), Blunt
28 March 1925	Crystal Palace	A	0–0	8,000
30 March 1925	Portsmouth	A	0–2
4 April 1925	Southampton	A	0–1	8,000
10 April 1925	Hull City	H	1–1	14,500	Briscoe
11 April 1925	Chelsea	A	0–1	30,000
13 April 1925	Hull City	A	1–2	4,000	Strange
18 April 1925	Stockport County	H	4–1	9,760	Kirkham (3 [1 pen]), Strange
22 April 1925	Blackpool	A	1–4	8,000	Strange
25 April 1925	Manchester United	A	0–4	40,000
2 May 1925	Fulham	A	1–1	10,000	Page

Round	Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Attendance	Goalscorers
5Q	29 November 1924	Boston	H	6–1	7,101	Strange (2), Kirkham (2), Briscoe (2)
6Q	13 December 1924	Alfreton	A	8–2	6,000	Briscoe (4), Kirkham (3), Strange
R1	10 January 1925	Aston Villa	A	2–7	35,800	Kirkham (2)

Pos.	Name	Football League		FA Cup		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
GK	Sidney Brown	4	0	0	0	4	0
GK	Tom Fern	37	0	3	0	40	0
GK	Robert Wallis	1	0	0	0	1	0
DF	Len Birks	11	0	0	0	11	0
DF	Jimmy Oakes	28	0	3	0	31	0
DF	Jack Maddock	21	1	2	0	23	1
DF	Tom Cooper	21	0	1	0	22	0
DF	Bert Lyon	0	0	0	0	0	0
MF	Ernest Collinge	29	0	3	0	32	0
MF	Bob Connelly	38	2	3	0	41	2
MF	Roger Jones	11	0	2	0	13	0
MF	Jack Lowe	42	1	3	0	45	1
MF	Arden Maddison	8	0	0	0	8	0
MF	Harry Lomas	1	0	0	0	1	0
MF	Jack Hyde	2	0	0	0	2	0
MF	Alfred Strange	30	4	3	3	33	7
MF	Billy Tempest	29	1	0	0	29	1
MF	Jack Wareham	2	0	0	0	2	0
MF	Sidney Blunt	36	1	3	0	39	1
FW	Tom Page	28	5	1	0	29	5
FW	Tom Reid	1	0	0	0	1	0
FW	Wilf Kirkham	41	26	3	7	44	33
FW	Billy Briscoe	41	6	3	6	44	12
FW	Tom Meigh	0	0	0	0	0	0

Place	Position	Nation	Name	Second Division	FA Cup	Total
1	FW	England	Wilf Kirkham	26	7	33
2	FW	England	Billy Briscoe	6	6	12
3	MF	England	Alfred Strange	4	3	7
4	FW	England	Tom Page	5	0	5
5	MF	Scotland	Bob Connelly	2	0	2
6	DF	England	Jack Maddock	1	0	1
–	MF	England	Jack Lowe	1	0	1
–	MF	England	Billy Tempest	1	0	1
–	MF	England	Sidney Blunt	1	0	1
–	–	–	Own goals	1	0	1
			TOTALS	48	16	66

Date from	Position	Nationality	Name	From	Fee	Ref.
1924	MF		Alfred Strange	Portsmouth	Free transfer	[4]
June 1924	GK		Tom Fern	Everton	Free transfer	[4]
June 1924	MF		Billy Tempest	Stoke	£1,000	[4]
July 1924	DF		Harry Lomas	Congleton	Free transfer	[4]
July 1924	GK		Robert Wallis	Trentham	Free transfer	[4]
August 1924	DF		Tom Cooper	Trentham	£20	[4]
August 1924	MF		Jack Wareham	Stoke	Free transfer	[4]
October 1924	DF		Arden Maddison	Stoke	Free transfer	[4]
November 1924	MF		Arthur Ecclestone	Stone Lotus	Free transfer	[4]

Date from	Position	Nationality	Name	To	Fee	Ref.
October 1924	DF		Len Birks	Sheffield United	'substantial'	[4]
Summer 1925	MF		Tom Davis	Stafford Rangers	Released	[4]
Summer 1925	MF		Jack Hyde		Released	[4]
Summer 1925	DF		Harry Lomas		Released	[4]
Summer 1925	MF		Jack Wareham	Crewe Alexandra	Released	[4]

Specific

General

• Kent, Jeff (1993). The Port Vale Record 1879-1993. Witan Books. ISBN 0-9508981-9-8.