Port Vale 1973-74

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The 1973-74 season saw Port Vale finish in twentieth spot, though were seven points clear of relegation. Manager Gordon Lee left the club in January, and was replaced by club legend Roy Sproson.

The team continued to rack up yellow cards, and following a warning from The Football Association, Sproson arranged for a local referee Roy Capey to lecture the players on sportsmanship. In April, Sproson was given the management job on a permanent basis, despite his team falling to fifth from bottom. Sproson stated that he was ‘calculated’ and ‘controlled’, compared to Lee who ‘fizzes like a bottle of pop’.

In the community, local residents will recall the pollution-ravaged stonework of St Paul’s in Dale Hall. An eye-catching Anglican Church with a lofty pinnacled tower and handsome Gothic edifice.

As it was being constructed in 1828, Enoch Wood had chambers built into the walls that he filled with pottery made by his family. He worked for short time at the Brickhouse Works of Josiah Wedgwood before becoming an established modeler, potter and businessman. The Grade II listed building still stands in Fountain Place in Burslem.

By 1974 the church was subsiding, had become dangerous and needed renovating. The local parishioners didn’t raise enough funds so it was signed over to a contractor for demolition.

On its destruction, Wood’s pottery was discovered and the contractor became very rich. Had the parishioners recalled the whereabouts of these fabulous artefacts hidden beneath their feet all those years, there would have been more than enough money to repair the church and it would probably still be standing today…