GEOFF Horsfield is hoping to sprinkle some of his promotion magic over Port Vale during their bid to reach the League Two play-offs.

During a distinguished playing career, the Vale assistant-manager has achieved promotion with five clubs – Halifax, Fulham, Birmingham, West Brom and Sheffield United.

But now the 36-year-old is striving to add a first promotion to his coaching CV with Vale just three points off the play-off zone with 10 games remaining.

"We've got a good bunch of lads here and winning promotion as a coach would mean just as much to me as doing it as a player," said Horsfield, who took on his first full-time coaching role last summer when he was installed as Micky Adams's number two.

"It's been fantastic being part of promotion-winning sides, and nothing beats playing in a team that's going up.

"This is a little bit different, but it would still mean a massive amount to me if we do get promoted, although I'm not saying we will."

Horsfield has scored well over 100 senior goals during his playing career, which included spells in the Premier League with West Brom and Birmingham City.

But recently he has been left to focus solely on his coaching duties while he continues his recovery from a lingering calf injury.

However, Vale's squad of forwards are certainly reaping the rewards of Horsfield's input on the training ground.

While winger Rob Taylor chalked up his ninth goal of the season in Saturday's 5-0 victory against Chesterfield, top scorer Marc Richards hit a superb hat-trick to take his tally to 19.

Horsfield, like 25-year-old Taylor, made his mark on the professional stage at a relatively late stage of his career.

After helping Halifax Town win promotion to the Football League in 1997-98, Horsfield earned his big break by securing a move to League One side Fulham in October 1998 when he was already 24.

Taylor is nearing the end of only his second season in the professional ranks after joining Vale from non-league Nuneaton Borough in 2008.

Taylor said: "Just having Geoff around is fantastic, especially from my point of view as he also came from non-league football and went through the leagues.

"He's always there on the training pitch and we're doing a lot more shooting and working on our finishing compared to last year.

"That's Geoff's bread and butter, so he's bringing that into our game and that's paid off this year.

"Marc's in good form to hit 19 goals, but I think everybody has chipped in this year and we're starting to look like we can score from different areas of the pitch."