The 2017–18 season was Port Vale's 106th season of football in the English Football League, and first season back in EFL League Two following relegation from EFL League One.
The season began as Michael Brown's first full season as manager, and he targeted promotion as he built a new squad in the summer. The rebuilding process required a massive clear out of 21 players, and in their place, he signed 13 permanent players and seven loan players, including former two-time Player of the Year Tom Pope. After winning on the opening day, Vale then went a club record six successive games in all competitions without scoring a goal, losing straight league games to go bottom of the league in September. This run ended with a 1–1 draw at home to Forest Green Rovers on 16 September, which was Brown's last match in charge. His replacement was former defender Neil Aspin, who was joined by former manager John Rudge in a director of football role. They oversaw an upturn in results, though the club exited the FA Cup following a replay in the second round; Aspin bemoaned refereeing decisions that saw Vale reduced to nine men, though they managed to take Yeovil Town into extra time despite twice going behind with two fewer players.
Aspin signed three players and four loanees in the January transfer window, the most significant addition being that of Luke Hannant; meanwhile, three players and four loanees left the club, the biggest loss being Gavin Gunning, who went to relegation rivals Forest Green Rovers. Vale went 14 games without a win at the start of 2018. Still, victory over Chesterfield on Good Friday eased genuine concerns of relegation into the National League. Nevertheless, a run of just two wins in their 21 games in 2018 meant they finished in 20th place, the joint-lowest finish in the club's history. They largely relied on Player of the Year Tom Pope's 19 goals to stay in the league.
Overview
EFL League Two Despite being unable to prevent relegation as caretaker manager the previous season, Michael Brown was confirmed as the club's new permanent manager in May 2017; incumbent assistants David "Ned" Kelly and Chris Morgan also retained their positions, as did chief scout Darren Wrack. Brown said that the budget available left him with "a good chance of gaining promotion". His first summer signing was former two-time Player of the Year Tom Pope on a free transfer after he managed to secure his release from Bury. He made his second signing four weeks later, goalkeeper Rob Lainton, who also arrived on a free transfer from Bury. Also arriving were Colombian winger Cristian Montaño, released from Bristol Rovers, and former Vale youth team centre-back Joe Davis, on a free transfer from Fleetwood Town, and 22-year-old Burton Albion goalkeeper Sam Hornby. These signings were quickly followed by the arrival of 19-year-old Sheffield United left-back Graham Kelly. A third Bury player also arrived in the form of 34-year-old centre-back Antony Kay, a veteran of over 600 professional matches. However, Brown also revealed that defender Kjell Knops had picked up an infection in his knee and missed the entire season after undergoing surgery.
Heading into July, Brown brought in target man striker Tyrone Barnett on a free transfer from AFC Wimbledon. He took on a wide variety of players on trial, including: Danny Green, Neal Eardley, Michael Tonge, Gavin Gunning, Billy Whitehouse, Tom Walker, Gaetan Lenoir, and Nicolas Guidicelli. He signed 19-year-old Huddersfield Town striker Rekeil Pyke on a season-long loan. As last season's captain Ben Purkiss rejected a new contract offer, Brown signed right-back Lawrie Wilson on a free transfer from Bolton Wanderers to replace him. Having decided against signing one of the wingers on trial, Brown instead brought in Burton Albion's Marcus Harness on a season-long loan. On the same day that Barnett was revealed to have suffered a serious hamstring tear, the club announced that trialist centre-back Gavin Gunning had signed a contract of undisclosed-length. The day before the opening game of the season, Brown secured veteran trialist midfielder Michael Tonge to a one-year deal, and also brought in 21-year-old winger Ben Whitfield on a half-season loan from AFC Bournemouth.
Brown played eight débutantes at Crawley Town on 5 August, and it was two of these, Kay and Tonge, who scored the opening goals of a 3–1 victory, finished off with a first league goal for Dan Turner. Two days later Brown signed 21-year-old left-back Tyler Denton on a season-long loan from Leeds United. Adebayo Akinfenwa put Wycombe Wanderers ahead within two minutes of the opening home game of the season at Vale Park on 12 August, and by the 25-minute mark he had scored the opposition's final goal of a 3–2 defeat for the "Valiants". In the week following the defeat to Wycombe, both Anton Forrester and Danny Pugh were ruled out of action for three to four months, and Brown signed 20-year-old Sheffield Wednesday winger Jack Stobbs on a season-long loan. The match at Chesterfield was declared "Ernie Moss Day" in tribute to the legend of both clubs, but another poor performance saw Vale slip to a 2–0 defeat to a side that had previously failed to pick up a point. Fans booed the team and turned on the manager, chanting 'You don't know what you're doing'. In the week building up to the local derby with Crewe Alexandra, Brown signed highly rated midfielder David Worrall. Worrall made his debut against Crewe, but it was midfield partner Michael Tonge who made the headlines for the wrong reasons, as he was sent off four minutes after Crewe's Chris Dagnall scored the only goal of the game on the half-hour mark; Brown said that Tonge was unlucky to be sent off and he was proud of his team's performance. On the final day before the summer transfer window closed, Brown signed Burnley centre-back Tom Anderson on a season-long loan and Doncaster Rovers central midfielder Harry Middleton on a free transfer.
Vale fell to 23rd-place at the beginning of September with a 1–0 home defeat to Notts County; Brown said his team were "sucker punched, against the run of play". Seven days later Tyrone Barnett returned from injury to make his Vale debut at Coventry City, however, goalkeeper Lainton picked up an injury as Vale fell to rock bottom of the Football League with a 1–0 defeat despite playing against ten-men for the closing stages of the game; the injury-list now included Lainton, Pugh, Montaño, Forrester, Pyke, Knops, with Tonge suspended. A sixth consecutive league loss followed in a 2–0 defeat at Luton Town, which was also the sixth-successive game in all competitions in which Vale had failed to score a goal – a club record. Chief Executive Colin Garlick said the club had not set any ultimatum to Brown for the home game with second-from-bottom Forest Green Rovers on 16 September. Brown signed Derby County goalkeeper Kelle Roos on an emergency loan and played him against Forest Green. Turner broke Vale's barren spell against Forest Green, scoring his third of the campaign in a rare start, but Rovers made three early substitutions and came back into the game to force a 1–1 draw which kept Vale bottom of the table; despite this Brown was confident he would still be in charge of the club for the following match. His confidence was misplaced however, as he was sacked shortly after the match; his assistants, David "Ned" Kelly and Chris Morgan were placed in charge of the club on an interim basis. They first took charge for the trip to Yeovil Town on 23 September, and were on the way to a 1–0 win when an error from Roos gifted Yeovil an equaliser; Vale ended up holding on to a 1–1 draw after James Gibbons marked his league debut with a sending off for two yellow cards. Three days later they took the lead at home to high-flying Accrington Stanley, but fell to a 2–1 defeat after a Billy Kee brace either side of half-time. The run of poor form continued with a 2–0 defeat at Stevenage. Meanwhile, the search for a new manager dragged on, as Smurthwaite ruled out National League managers John Askey and Neil Aspin, stating that the list of prospective names had been narrowed down to three 'exceptional' candidates.
Despite previously being ruled out by Smurthwaite, Gateshead manager Neil Aspin was installed as Port Vale manager on 4 October, advised by former manager John Rudge in a director of football role. Three days later his new team got off to an excellent start at home to Grimsby Town as they were leading 1–0 at half-time with a Tom Pope goal, but then a second-half turnaround saw them lose the match 2–1 and slip back into the relegation zone. Aspin managed a victory in his second game though, with Pope scoring a brace in a 3–1 home win over Cheltenham Town. Aspin went on to name Danny Pugh as the club's new captain, ahead of the dropped Antony Kay. Vale then recorded a 3–0 win at Morecambe, with Pope again scoring a brace and Montaño marking his return to action with his first goal for the club. Pope again scored at third-placed Exeter City to give Vale a 1–0 victory in blustery conditions. Following an injury to Roos, Aspin acted swiftly to sign the big Bulgarian goalkeeper Dimitar Evtimov on loan from Nottingham Forest, who started immediately in the 3–0 home defeat to Swindon Town. Aspin said he was "very disappointed about the whole goalkeeping situation". Aspin went on to be nominated for the EFL League Two Manager of the Month award and Pope was nominated for the EFL League Two Player of the Month award, after three wins in five games and five goals and one assist for Pope.
Going into November, Aspin signed 20-year box-to-box midfielder Chris Regis, who had previously entered non-League football after spending time on the books at Arsenal, Southampton and Colchester United. Vale then travelled to Newport County, and returned home with a point after coming back from 1–0 down, Anton Forrester scoring with his first league appearance of the campaign. Fellow relegation battlers Barnet arrived in Burslem on 18 November, and Vale claimed a hard-fought victory after Pope converted a late penalty won by Gibbons. This was Port Vale's first penalty since 20 January. However, three days later the Vale fell to a 4–0 defeat at home to Mansfield Town, though Aspin said his team worked hard and the scoreline was not a fair reflection on the game. They then suffered a 3–1 defeat away to Lincoln City, having looked second best to the National League champions for most of the match; Aspin said the performance was not good enough. Also in November, long-serving full-back Adam Yates returned from a loan spell at Macclesfield Town only to suffer extensive facial injuries in a collision with Hornby in a reserve team match; despite his injury and in light of his service to the club, Yates was given a contract extension to keep him on until the end of the season. However, he went on to announce his retirement from playing in March.