Dale crashed out of the JPT at the first opportunity, going down 2-1 at a sparse Vale Park. Full report now online.

There's nothing like the JPT to whet the appetite of supporters. And television viewing figures must have been a record high amongst supporters of teams from Leagues One and Two as the crowds once again stayed away, despite reduced admission prices. Indeed, the Dale travelling support must have been the lowest since the Ob listed everyone's names in the paper that time.

Faces amongst the away end weren't the only absentees, as Keith Hill stuck to his pre-match promise and played a much weaker side than expected. The token six players from the weekend were included, but after the weekend's gruelling two games in 40 hours, it was only right that the Dawson / Jonah / O'Grady spine of the side were given the night off by Keith Hill and Jason Kennedy was given the night off by those six or seven fans who grabbed him at Brentford.

It provided the opportunity to give some of the fringe players a run out. We had full debuts for Matty Done, Josh Thompson, Jack Redshaw and a second debut for Alan Goodall, and for the first time this season, we had JLAA and Anthony Elding on the pitch together.

We had a great start to the game, and for the first fifteen minutes or so, there looked to be a massive gulf between the Port Vale side and our own side which was only slightly stronger than what we might have sent to Bury for a pre-season fund raiser. It was looking really good, and we had the home side on the back foot.

One thing which stood out was the performance of Matty Done. If games like this are opportunities for players from outside of the first team to stake a claim for a starting berth, then I can recall few better examples of this than Done's at Vale Park. He was everywhere, with bursts of energy that was running the game for Dale. He helped create a number of half chances for those wearing blue and black.

But the home side came back into the game, and by the time they took the lead, you'd have to be very blinkered to suggest that it hadn't been coming. They'd been finding space in the Dale half, and on a number of occasions seemed to find that extra man. In one such move, former Dale loanee Marc Richards received the ball in acres of space, and drilled the ball past Josh Lillis to give the Valiants the lead. What followed was something out of the NHL as the tannoy man led crowd chanting with songs from his Now That's What I Call  Blackpool & Crystal Palace Music volume 1. Cringeworthy 1 Dale 0.

As the half got towards half time, it all got a bit nothingy. I likened it at the time to when you're out at a restaurant, and you stare at the menu for a good ten minutes without actually taking any of it in, and the game had certainly had that JPT stamp all over it. We had a late chance from Alan Goodall as he let fly from thirty yards out in what would have been the first contender of the season for that Goal of the Season tag. Unfortunately, the Vale keeper was more than equal to it.

From an entertainment point of view, the second half was a much better, and even had me out of my seat at times. Certainly far from your typical JPT fare, Dale chased hard for a way back into the game, albeit in vain. It was a performance fraught with mistakes but exciting nonetheless. We had a double sub of Helio Andre and Andrew Tutte on for Jack Redshaw and Brian Barry-Murphy respectively.

The lively performance from the second year YT Andre allowed Dale a foothold back into the game. He was all over the place, and certainly wasn't put off by a knocks he received.

At this stage, we were all over Vale and a second goal in the game seemed a matter of time away. We had corner after corner, but for all our attacking possession and corners, we routinely seemed to waste the opportunities with some horrendous crosses into the box, many of which didn't even make it into the box.

That second goal did come with twenty minutes to go but it went the way of the Valiants, allowing for a bit of tannoy cheerleading yet again. The problem was with the first, as this time it was Justin Richards who found all the space to finish past Lillis, but in fairness we were pushing forward so much, gaps were always going to appear.

But just when it seemed this particular route to Wembley (but not Europe) was over, we were given a little chink of light as Dale man of the match Matty Done grabbed a lifeline. A corner from the left hand side was headed out, before Done delievered a low drive through a crowd of bodies into the back of the net. Scholes-esque you could say.

We came close to grabbing an equaliser, with perhaps Joe Thompson having the closest effort when his scissor kick clipped the cross bar, and a late effort was deflected wide but it was not to be, and the home side held on to record a 2-1 victory.

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