Port Vale stayed top of their Bristol Street Motors Trophy group as they defeated Wolverhampton Wanderers under 21’s 5-4 on penalties after they came from behind twice in normal time.
Summer signings Lorent Tolaj and Ronan Curtis got their first goals in Vale colours before another summer signing, Ben Amos, saved two penalties in the shootout which allowed academy graduate James Plant to win the game for the Vale Park outfit.
Curtis was the only player to survive Darren Moore’s rotation as the Vale boss made 10 changes to the side that lost at home to Doncaster Rovers at the weekend. The changes also saw Nathan Smith play his first game of the season, while academy midfielder Karl Angero was named amongst the substitutes.
The game’s first chance fell to Wolves after just four minutes of play when Finn Ashworth pinched the ball off the Vale defence before advancing into the penalty area. Thankfully, his effort went wide of the goal.
After that, Vale took control of the proceedings with their first chance coming on 10 minutes as Jason Lowe linked up with Jayden Stockley before the latter played in Ethan Chislett. However, he could only put his effort just wide of the goal.
As the half wore on Chislett and Stockley continued to get into good positions inside the Wolves’ final third but were unable to assess the ability of Wolves’ goalkeeper Tom King. While Benicio Baker-Boaitey was always a thorn in the visitors’ defence as he tried to put them on the back foot.
Despite all the pressure coming from Port Vale, it was the visitors who took the lead against the run of play on 25 minutes as Tom Edozie cut across the penalty area before unleashing a strong shot beyond the despairing dive of Amos.
Even though they had gone a goal down, Vale looked to quickly level up proceedings in first-half injury time when after some neat work, Curtis was picked out in the penalty area, but the former AFC Wimbledon man couldn’t find the bottom corner of the goal.
After the break, the game followed the same pattern as the opening 45 minutes with Vale continuing to play the better football and eventually scored on the hour mark. Long-serving Smith had stayed up top following a corner and when the recycled ball fell to him, he nodded it down into the path of Tolaj who smashed an unstoppable strike into the top corner of the goal.
It had the desired effect on the Vale as they shifted up another gear to try and win this match. Antwoine Hackford, who was a deadline-day loan signing from Sheffield United, almost made an instant impact following his arrival on the pitch as the midfielder saw his effort sting the palms of King with a low effort.
Tom Sang and Curtis will feel like they should have scored with their chances in the final twenty minutes of the match. First Sang drove at the Wolves’ defence before putting his shot straight at King, in reality, the wing-back should have taken his shot on much earlier. Meanwhile, Curtis saw his chance fly over the crossbar.
If Vale fans thought the first Wolves goal was against the run of play, then the second one with five minutes to go certainly was. Ben Lomax played a square ball in front of the Vale penalty area which was picked up by Fletcher Holman who smashed his strike into the top corner of the goal from all of 25 yards out. That was Wolves’ first meaningful attack of the second half.
However, the game was not over yet and Vale pulled level with just two minutes to go. Plant made a good run forward from his position as a wing-back before finding Hackford. His shot was originally saved by King but, the rebound fell to Curtis who blasted home from close range.
Vale had one final chance to win the match in normal time as the two scorers- Tolaj and Curtis linked up with the former seeing his header go over the crossbar.
A point each on the board for both sides but, in this competition, an extra point is available for
winning a penalty shootout.
After six successful penalties converted, Amos saved Wolves’ 4th penalty from Matt Whittingham.
It allowed Lowe the chance to win it for Vale but, his effort was also saved.
Following another stop from Amos, this time denying Owen Farmer, it allowed Plant the opportunity to win the shootout if he scored. He did that with ease and meant the side from Vale Park have 5 points from their first two fixtures in this competition.
Port Vale: Amos, Sang, Smith, Debrah (Agnero, 77), Plant, Lowe, Baker-Boaitey (Tolaj, 46), Bayers (Lomax, 61), Curtis, Chislett (Richards, 46) and Stockley (Hackford, 61).
Unused subs: Ripley and Buah.
Wolves under 21s: King, Esen, Pond, Mabete, Keto-Diyawa, Angel (Farmer, 73), White (Holman, 73), Whittingham, Ashworth (Carson, 90+5), Edozie (Barnett, 64) and Voice.
Unused subs: Nasta, Igbinoghene and Matthews.
Attendance: 851
