Former Port Vale midfielder and Sentinel columnist Robbie Earle has his say on events at Vale Park

WHEN people ask what Port Vale means to me, I only have to refer them to that Sentinel photograph taken moments after clinching promotion in 1989.

We'd beaten Bristol Rovers in the play-offs at Vale Park and were back in the second tier of English football for the first time in 32 years.

When the final whistle went, I'm not too proud to say the occasion and the emotion got to me.

What makes the memory even happier is the fact I know there were sons, dads, granddads and grandmas in Vale Park that day who felt just the same.

When I'd joined Vale seven years earlier, they were struggling in the Fourth Division without a pot to pee in.

We were like a non-league club. My first pre-season was spent painting around the ground and helping maintenance manager Bill Lodey, now the club secretary, make benches for the dressing rooms.

Those memories came flooding back as I slumped down in the tunnel while our fans celebrated beating Rovers and the start of the next chapter in our glory days under John Rudge.

It meant so much more because I'd been with the club as they'd dragged themselves up.

Vale supporters need no lectures from me about suffering the lows to truly appreciate the highs. I am sure plenty are thinking long and hard about renewing their season tickets, but I hope they stick with the club because the Valiants need them more than ever.

I can see the club rising again, but they will find it much harder without the fans who backed them so magnificently last summer when 6,500 bought season tickets.

Those tickets are a tough sell for the club this time. No one would deny it has been a dismal season, and let's not forget the economic climate which will have put lots of fans out of work.

Fans who are struggling for money just can't make football their priority anymore. I'm sure the club understands that.

But at least by keeping prices low, chairman Bill Bratt is trying to make games available to as many people as possible.

It does seem a long way back up to the Championship.

In some ways, it will be tougher to make that climb than when John Rudge was working his magic at Vale Park.

When Darren Beckford and I both left in the summer of 1991, the club banked close to £1.8m for the pair of us.

But I was 25 and out of contract, so these days – thanks to the Bosman ruling – the club would have been entitled to nothing for me.

That makes life so hard for the smaller clubs, but, in recent years, the likes of Hull and Blackpool have emerged from the basement division and shown what can be achieved without spending a huge amount of money.

Rudgey's ability to spot a bargain would have served him well in any era. After all, he knew how to build a team.

After winning promotion, we went to play Stoke on equal terms, taking them on with a side including Darren Beckford, Simon Mills, Neil Aspin and Dean Glover.

It is tough to choose the best I played alongside at Vale, but Ray Walker edges it. Under different circumstances, and with a bit more luck, Ray could have played in the top flight ... and been a good player there too.

I've played against a lot of players in the Premier League who had nowhere near the ability and technique he had ... and all that for just £12,000 from Aston Villa reserves.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed Vale can find another Ray Walker.

I'm also hoping, in the not-too distant future, that another Vale player will be too overcome with emotion to celebrate a promotion. When that happens, I know just how the fans who have stuck by their club this year will feel.

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