Port Vale host Championship side Nottingham Forest in their first home pre-season test

The Valiants play host to Chris Hughton’s Nottingham Forest on Saturday, where the Burslem side will hope to build on previous pre-season performances – this time against Championship opposition.

Port Vale

Vale have had a mixed bag of results in pre-season. Darrell Clarke’s side have played four friendlies in recent weeks, three being against non-league opposition.

The Valiants’ first pre-season test ended in a 2-0 victory away to nearby non-league side Kidsgrove Athletic.

A visit to Stafford Rangers was the next fixture for the League Two side which ended in a 2-0 defeat, before making the very short trip to Newcastle Town the next day, serving up an incredibly exciting eight goal thriller, seeing Vale walk away 6-2 victors.

Port Vale’s latest pre-season fixture was a 1-0 defeat to Fleetwood Town on Tuesday, as Jordan Rossiter scored the decisive goal after 51 minutes.

Captain Tom Conlon is the key man for the Vale – The dynamic midfielder scored 10 goals and provided eight assists over the course of the 2020/21 campaign, and has already scored two goals so far in pre-season.

Dubbed ‘The Porthill Pirlo’ by the Vale faithful, Conlon is a threat from direct set pieces, a penalty specialist, and also has a menacing long shot, but can also score from close range too.

The 25-year-old enjoyed a run of fine form through his sides’ nine game unbeaten run in the latter stages of last season, which saw him score five goals and clocking up two assists from central midfield.

Nottingham Forest

A 2-1 away triumph against National League North side Alfreton Town is the only pre-season fixture that Forest have had so far this summer. Brennan Johnson opened the scoring in the first half but the hosts pulled level shortly after half time. Later on, former Port Vale loanee Will Swan clinched the winner for the Championship side with two minutes of normal time remaining.

Nottingham Forest’s key asset is Joe Worrall. The towering central defender kept 13 clean sheets in 31 appearances throughout the 20/21 league campaign as well as scoring one goal and providing one assist in the process.

The 24-year-old won Forest’s Player of the Season award last season, in what was a disappointing season for the East Midlands outfit as they struggled for form early on in the season under Sabri Lamouchi.

Since Hughton’s arrival at the City Ground in October, Worrall has excelled which saw Forest climb the Championship table away from the relegation battle and again being one of the most sought after players in the division during this summer’s transfer window.

Injury News

Neither side have any players unavailable through injury or self-isolation so both managers will have a full squad of players to select from.

Head to Head

The previous competitive fixture between these outfits was in December 2007, where Forest secured a 2-0 home triumph on their way to promotion from League One, however the latest meeting between the sides was a pre-season friendly in July 2016 where Forest walked away 2-0 victors thanks to goals from Matt Mills and Britt Assombalonga.

This will be the 51st fixture between the sides, Forest have won 27 of the previous 50 encounters with Vale being victorious in 13 – and the other 10 ties ending in a stalemate.

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