Port Vale 2006-07

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The 2006-2007 season got off to a terrific start for manager Martin Foyle, winning the opening four league matches, and then following that up by beating Championship outfit Preston North End in the Carling Cup.

A drop in league form and a larger than expected injury list took its toll, though there was further Carling Cup success as the Valiants beat two more Championship clubs, in QPR and Norwich, before going out of the competition at White Hart Lane reaching the Fourth Round for the first time. Port Vale took the lead against Tottenham but the home side came back to force extra time and tired legs saw the Valiants concede a further two goals before returning to the Potteries with heads held high.

Top scorer Leon Constantine and strike partner Akpo Sodje put in a 42-goal partnership, with Sodje picking up the club’s Player of the Year award. At the end of the season Constantine left the club, as did senior midfielder Danny Sonner, scuppering Foyle’s long-term plans.

Waterside Primary School opened in January 2007 as an eco- school, a modern building alongside the Caldon Canal. The school replaced an old Victorian School which was built in 1879 by the Hanley School Board.

The premises was built on the site of the Johnson Brothers Imperial Pottery. The two other Johnson Brothers factories alongside Eastwood Road were the Hanley Works and the Trent Works. Operating since the 1880’s, by the mid 1940’s Johnson Brothers were one of the world’s largest manufacturers of earthenware and ironstone china.