I think the rivalry started about 73 with Port Vale away, then escalated a year later with their bigger neighbours. Always liked an away game down that end, it was like going into the unknown. One thing, Vale and Stoke never mobbed up together for a ruck when Bolton came to town.

11 hours ago, Take Hunt Off said:

Back in 1971/2 we played Port Vale in Burslem .They needed to beat us to have a chance of promotion ( we were already up ) .We were there in numbers but the day went toxic when JB stuck one in the top corner to make it 2-2 in possibly the fifth minute of injury time.Seconds later ref Rob Styles blew full time & all our fans piled onto the pitch including me to celebrate our promotion .As the ref left the pitch two bigs guys in donkey jackets appeared from nowhere & poleaxed the ref.( & I mean poleaxed) Obviously they were'nt our fans & by the time we got out of the ground we were on the wrong side of the stadium & had to battle our way through the subway & my mate got hit with a snooker ball ...happy days I was doing my best gentleman jim impression duck swing step back punch in other words get a bit of a kicking from the crombie clad rabble.....no class either but the snooker ball turned my mucker into a wild whirling dervish & he cleared a path through the bastards & we got through only slightly battered.

Rob Styles? He must be getting on a bit if he was reffing in 72...... presume it’s different Rob Styles. Great memories by the way. 

Went to Victoria ground when Shilton played, moody, including a pitch invasion

Went to vale twice, opening day in 96 (nothing to report) and our last visit which was moody, including a pitch invasion

Never been to the Britannia

1 hour ago, Mounts Kipper said:

Rob Styles? He must be getting on a bit if he was reffing in 72...... presume it’s different Rob Styles. Great memories by the way. 

Yes memory malfunction.Pretty sure it was Keith Styles always reasonable to us in those days for some reason .No way there was that much injury time in that game which is why he got a kicking by the Vale thugs.Strangely enough never saw anything about the attack in the papers

 

Rarely had any bother at Port Vale. Stoke has always been the one where you spend half your time watching your own back. The night Shilton came on at theres was manic on the car park. Utter pandemonium.

17 hours ago, Take Hunt Off said:

Back in 1971/2 we played Port Vale in Burslem .They needed to beat us to have a chance of promotion ( we were already up ) .We were there in numbers but the day went toxic when JB stuck one in the top corner to make it 2-2 in possibly the fifth minute of injury time.Seconds later ref Rob Styles blew full time & all our fans piled onto the pitch including me to celebrate our promotion .As the ref left the pitch two bigs guys in donkey jackets appeared from nowhere & poleaxed the ref.( & I mean poleaxed) Obviously they were'nt our fans & by the time we got out of the ground we were on the wrong side of the stadium & had to battle our way through the subway & my mate got hit with a snooker ball ...happy days I was doing my best gentleman jim impression duck swing step back punch in other words get a bit of a kicking from the crombie clad rabble.....no class either but the snooker ball turned my mucker into a wild whirling dervish & he cleared a path through the bastards & we got through only slightly battered.

I was there that day and it was very toxic; I am sure it was Easter

It must have been 86/87 when the lad was stabbed, after the match the police walked up and down the club coaches i think they were looking for somebody with bloodstained clothes.

88/89 Miami's lot bought tickets in the home seats and kicked it off  with Port Vale in the Main Stand.Late 80s Bolton was the best firm either club have had, Port Vale have never been in the home stands at Bolton.

 

16 hours ago, leigh white said:

Oct 73.

That's the 2nd away game I remember being at & I've no idea why I thought I was 6 at Vale in 72 when I was actually 9😳😂

19 minutes ago, Roger_Dubuis said:

It must have been 86/87 when the lad was stabbed, after the match the police walked up and down the club coaches i think they were looking for somebody with bloodstained clothes.

88/89 Miami's lot bought tickets in the home seats and kicked it off  with Port Vale in the Main Stand.Late 80s Bolton was the best firm either club have had, Port Vale have never been in the home stands at Bolton.

 

83 was a rough time at Vale, kicking off all over Burslem, but Bolton always took an handy set of lads down there. Going in 96 was like a walk in the park for the first game of the season, no problems whatsoever.

Remember getting locked in a pub when the lad got stabbed, whilst the police tried questioning us.

Never had any problems at Port Vale I know a couple of vale fans and they reckon late 80s /90s Boltons mob was the worst they came across said they used to dread playing us home and away.

 

Went in 96 for the first game of the season and nothing happened. 

Went for the game on Boxing Day that was postponed and nothing definitely happened  

4 hours ago, MickyD said:

 Stoke has always been the one where you spend half your time watching your own back. The night Shilton came on at theres was manic on the car park. Utter pandemonium.

We went on a coach from the Howcroft, it parked behind their kop end - so we had to walk through all the fuckers to get to our coach after the game, not a pleasant experience.

Before the game we had stopped for a few beers in Alsager and our coach got bricked on  the way to the Victoria Ground, 20 or so of our lads jumped off the coach, caught up with them and slapped a few heads.

'Twas an eventful day.

Our last visit to Vale wasn't without incident either.

2 hours ago, RUREADY2ROLL said:

I was there that day and it was very toxic; I am sure it was Easter

Last game of the season wasnt it??

website enfa has all historical scores and final tables and the Port Vale game was the last away game. We beat York City the Saturday to get promoted and finished the season beating Brentford at Burnden 2-0

3 hours ago, Roger_Dubuis said:

88/89 Miami's lot bought tickets in the home seats and kicked it off  with Port Vale in the Main Stand.Late 80s Bolton was the best firm either club have had, Port Vale have never been in the home stands at Bolton.

 

Have they been to Eccles though? 

16 minutes ago, RoadRunnerFan said:

Have they been to Eccles though? 

Twas a piece of cake 😉

41 minutes ago, RONNIE PHILLIPS said:

Twas a piece of cake 😉

At the currant time it was but back in the day they were raisin a fine mob.

Always found the Potteries very moody. More so with Port Vale. I have no sympathy for the Port Vale lad who got slashed. By all accounts that day PV went looking for trouble and bit off more than they could chew. The 4k strong ID parade the police organised after the match was something special. Don't think they found who they were looking for.

 

After our last visit there we had a marathon walk through that shit hole to a train station. A couple of our young uns were excited and giving it large, understandably so given the result, during that walk. Theres a time for that, and given our history older heads told them to pipe down..... It worked.... for 2 minutes 😑

Worked in this area for over 20 years, Burslem and Tunstall are semi rough, but areas such as Chell Heath and Feg Hayes are as rough as you find anywhere. This is where they get most of their support from.

Vale fans are okay, they have a self depreciating humour, a bit like us.

Stoke I have no time for, right up their own arses. They are still giving out long contracts to average players,  and think that the 365 money gives them the right to act like Billy big bollox. I am hoping when the parachute money dries up and they start losing millions a month, the owners will have a rethink and their fans will have a taste of reality 👍

1 hour ago, nantwichwhite said:

Worked in this area for over 20 years, Burslem and Tunstall are semi rough, but areas such as Chell Heath and Feg Hayes are as rough as you find anywhere. This is where they get most of their support from.

Vale fans are okay, they have a self depreciating humour, a bit like us.

Stoke I have no time for, right up their own arses. They are still giving out long contracts to average players,  and think that the 365 money gives them the right to act like Billy big bollox. I am hoping when the parachute money dries up and they start losing millions a month, the owners will have a rethink and their fans will have a taste of reality 👍

When i worked in Stoke, Hanley was buzzing during the week, nightclubs got packed with talent and the folk are friendly enough even in the rough pubs, just a shithole of a place with a patchwork quilt of towns and sprawling council estates and little quaint kilns.

2 hours ago, Underpants said:

Always found the Potteries very moody. More so with Port Vale. I have no sympathy for the Port Vale lad who got slashed. By all accounts that day PV went looking for trouble and bit off more than they could chew. The 4k strong ID parade the police organised after the match was something special. Don't think they found who they were looking for.

 

After our last visit there we had a marathon walk through that shit hole to a train station. A couple of our young uns were excited and giving it large, understandably so given the result, during that walk. Theres a time for that, and given our history older heads told them to pipe down..... It worked.... for 2 minutes 😑

The one who got a bit of a flesh wound in 87,  certainly came looking for it, just like he had at Burnden a couple of seasons earlier when he strayed into the Manny Road North and got a good hiding with his mate.

Same the following season when they came mob handed and got a serious kicking near the old college.

That day in 87 I remember very well, having sussed his mate with the PVFC tattoo on his neck. He  came into the pub trying to suss the young cuckoo boys out and returned with a tidy mob of older heads, who underestimated us....the rest is history.

Re Roger - the Bolton lads who went into their seats, they were nothing to do with me and that incident was several years before, I think it was when Roy Walker scored their winner about 45 minutes into injury time.

Re the tit with the tattoo on his neck - I bumped into him during Euro 2000 at the England v Romania game in Charleroi.....he was scuffling with a Plymouth flag over putting a flag over his in the ground....the silly Vale fan received a kicking then off the Argyle fan.

Looks like things have never changed for that scruffy little cunt.

I lived in stoke when at uni there. Rough place in parts but no worse than anywhere else. Stoke fans utter cockwombles in the main. Vale fans I met were few and far between but were ok 

Edited January 28, 20206 yr by Escobarp

5 minutes ago, miamiwhite said:

The one who got a bit of a flesh wound in 87,  certainly came looking for it, just like he had at Burnden a couple of seasons earlier when he strayed into the Manny Road North and got a good hiding with his mate.

Same the following season when they came mob handed and got a serious kicking near the old college.

That day in 87 I remember very well, having sussed his mate with the PVFC tattoo on his neck. He  came into the pub trying to suss the young cuckoo boys out and returned with a tidy mob of older heads, who underestimated us....the rest is history.

Re Roger - the Bolton lads who went into their seats, they were nothing to do with me and that incident was several years before, I think it was when Roy Walker scored their winner about 45 minutes into injury time.

Re the tit with the tattoo on his neck - I bumped into him during Euro 2000 at the England v Romania game in Charleroi.....he was scuffling with a Plymouth flag over putting a flag over his in the ground....the silly Vale fan received a kicking then off the Argyle fan.

Looks like things have never changed for that scruffy little cunt.

It was 83 when Bolton lads went in their seats at VP, some serious carnage that day.

4 minutes ago, leigh white said:

It was 83 when Bolton lads went in their seats at VP, some serious carnage that day.

Correct pal.

Someone on our side displaying some fine martial arts skills IIRC

2 minutes ago, miamiwhite said:

Correct pal.

Someone on our side displaying some fine martial arts skills IIRC

They had more guts than any home fans that season when Bolton came into town, i admired them for defending their end for a little tin pot club.