Port Vale boss full of respect for Nolan and Cobblers ahead of League One meeting
Port Vale boss Darren Moore is expecting a ‘stern test’ this weekend as two in-form teams go head-to-head at Vale Park.
Vale failed to win any of their opening seven league matches after promotion from League One last season, taking just two points, but impressive wins over Exeter, Mansfield and Barnsley have duly propelled them up the table, in similar fashion to Northampton.
The club were almost as busy as Cobblers in the summer, recruiting 12 new players in preparation for life back in the third tier, and they’ve found the net at least twice in each of the last four games, including three in four appearances from deadline-day signing Devante Cole.
"It’s another stern test for us this weekend,” said Moore, who took charge of Vale in February 2024. “It’s always special to play at Vale Park and we have another opportunity on Saturday. We expect a different game than what we faced at Barnsley because it’s a different opposition who have different trends under Kevin Nolan.
"Kevin has done really, really well there and they will be a confident team after beating Bolton 2-0. They’re a team that is proud of their defensive record and rightly so because they’ve had four clean sheets in the last five games.
"It’s a stern test against a good team who have a very experienced management team with Kevin and his backroom staff. They’ll present us with a different test this weekend and that’s what we’ve worked on this week.”
On his side’s own turnaround in form, Moore said: "Everyone will always look at the results, but we always felt at the start of the season, even though we weren't getting the results, the performances were there. Hopefully what people are seeing now is there's been a progression with the football club and the team as well.
"What I can say is there's more to come from the players, so we have to keep working on the training ground and pushing them on to show more of what we brought them to the football club for."
Rhys Walters, Funso Ojo, Ben Waine and Jack Shorrock all missed the win at Barnsley but some of them could return against Cobblers.
“They were just really unfortunate to miss out on Saturday,” Moore added. “Rhys and Ryan put in a huge amount of work against Arsenal (in the Carabao Cup) and there wasn’t enough time to recover.
"We have a week to work now and then we have another three-game week with Northampton, Accrington and Wimbledon. One thing I can guarantee is they will come back into it and they will be involved.”