League Two Port Vale beat League One Rochdale in a tactical contest at Vale Park. Another great Vale performance finally brought a home victory.
This was Port Vale's SEVENTH first team game in August, and for this Micky Adams made 5 changes, including Chris Martin in goal and Ritchie Sutton starting in defence. Although he stuck with the two Richards up front, the rest of the team didn't suffer for the changes, showing Vale have more quality in depth than they have displayed for years.
Rochdale made 6 changes, but were forced into making corrective changes at half-time.
Marc Richards gave Vale a 27th-minute lead when he hit a superb angled drive from 18 yards from a pass by Anthony Griffith.
Chris Martin made several fine stops, including a save from Tony Elding after the break.
Rochdale's passing side failed to make the breakthough, and in the 70th minute the tenacious full-back Lee Collins weaved into the area from the left to deliver the ball for Justin Richards to smash home for 2-0.
Matt Done on his starting debut got on the end of another lengthy Rochdale passing movement to score from an 18-yard drive on 79 minutes.
In the final seconds Joe Thompson almost equalised when his shot struck the bar. But in the end Vale clung on easily.