Cod Almighty | Diary

A northern industrial town

5 October 2017

'The Mariners' Promoted to Division Three 1989-90 reads the caption on Middle-Aged Diary's work mug. It has always been my work mug, and my work mug only; even during a period when I wasn't in gainful work, it remained in storage waiting for the day someone would think me worth a wage.

The idea was that it would start conversations at tea points, and so it has, but remarkably few of them over a quarter of a century. I have never had a fan of a Premier League team mention it. Someone with little interest in football commented on it, but gave me a London Welsh mug when I left the capital for Manchester. The conversations it has started have been with supporters of Bolton Wanderers, Stockport County, Rochdale, and Port Vale.

Logistically, Port Vale are an odd throwback to our Conference seasons and away trips when the journey was not just to the nearest station but then involved a sounding-out of bus routes as well. My Vale-supporting colleague, having nodded knowingly at my less than flattering first impressions of Sam Kelly and JJ Hooper ("a confidence player", we agreed) warns me there is no direct bus from Stoke-on-Trent station to Vale Park.

Last time I went, it was no problem. Outside the station I found a bus stop with a chap in a Port Vale scarf standing at it and fell into conversation; always as well to make sure that a fan in a scarf is actually going to the game. Through the half-hour bus ride to Burslem, he pointed out car showrooms and empty plots that were once potteries. Most northern towns must have a similar litany, their own industrial archaeology of a way of life that is, at best, disappearing.

Port Vale I bracket with Town, with Crewe and with Walsall. In the late 1980s and early 1990s we all had our little local miracle, assembling good footballing teams that punched well above their weights. Only Crewe got a fraction of the national credit their achievements deserved. I've watched Town at Port Vale a couple of times, but oddly my most vivid experience of them is from the last day of the 1991-92 season, weeding in a Torquay garden and listening out for news that a Tommy Watson goal had saved us but consigned Vale to the drop.

At the time, I was just pleased it wasn't us who were relegated. I can always think of teams I'd far prefer to go down than Vale though, then and now. It's still early days so we can hope that, whatever happens on Saturday, we are both competing for honours come May.