Third Division The pre-season saw the arrival of
John Rowland, a 'tall and skilful' outside-right from
Nottingham Forest for £6,000. Low's successor instead proved to be his predecessor,
Freddie Steele, in another development that took many by surprise.
Roy Sproson later noted "He [Steele] had changed. He had not got the enthusiasm or drive as before, but the lads still responded to him". On 9 November, Vale beat
Barnsley by a goal to nil, though a section of the
Vale Park crowd threatened violence against referee Jack Pickles after he sent off Stan Steele. It took until the sixth game of Freddie Steele's reign for a goal to be conceded (525 minutes) as 'the Steele Curtain' again descended upon Vale Park. The goal was scored by former Valiant turned bogey player
Ronnie Allen for
Crystal Palace in a 4–1 home win for Vale. This win was followed by a 2–2 draw with
Wrexham that left the Vale within two points of second place. They finished the year chasing
promotion, despite losing 4–3 to
Reading at
Elm Park. No league games were played in January or February due to the
Big Freeze. To help with finances during this spell of two months without competitive action,
Bert Llewellyn was sold to
Northampton Town for £7,000 and
Arthur Longbottom was sold to
Millwall for £2,000. Back in action in March, Steele found his offence wanting, and so purchased
Tony Richards from
Walsall for £9,000. Richards immediately impacted himself on the club's scoring charts, bagging a brace at
Halifax Town, eventually finishing as top-scorer for his two months of work. A 2–0 victory over
Carlisle United was the first game at Vale Park in 12 weeks, as the club had found themselves with up to four games in hand on their rivals. For the four weeks following 20 April, Vale recorded eight wins from their final ten matches, though this would prove to be too little too late regarding promotion. Hopes of promotion were extinguished with a 3–0 home defeat to
Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic on 13 May. They finished in third spot with 54 points, four short of promotion, though enough to earn them £500 in talent money. Their 58 goals conceded total was fewer only than
Swindon Town.
Finances On the financial side, a profit of £2,275 was made despite an operating loss of £20,557. A donation from the Sportsmen's Association and social club stood at a highly impressive £22,832. Whilst wages remained fairly constant at £33,120, gate receipts had fallen by £8,000. The club's
overdraft stood at £41,000, leading to a discussion over whether or not to take out a
mortgage on Vale Park. The club management decided to replace the black and amber
kit with the traditional white shirts, black shorts and black and white socks – the kit Steele's men triumphed in
almost ten years previously. On the playing front,
Peter Ford's departure to
Macclesfield Town was the only transfer of note.
Cup competitions In the
FA Cup, Vale took their revenge upon Bristol Rovers, dumping them out of the competition at the first stage with a 2–0 win at
Burslem on 21 November. Three weeks later,
Aldershot suffered the same fate in Sproson's 500th appearance for the club. In the third round they beat
Fourth Division side
Gillingham 4–2 at
Priestfield. The tie had been postponed 12 times due to consistently freezing conditions. They then lost 2–1 to
First Division club
Sheffield United in front of 22,207 rain-soaked supporters. In the
League Cup,
Bristol Rovers won the first round clash at the
Memorial Stadium 2–0. ==Results==