League One Five
youth team players were given professional
contracts for the 2015–16 season: defender Lewis Bergin, midfielders Chekaine Steele,
Billy Reeves and Omar Haughton, and striker Jonathon Kapend.
Manager Rob Page signed a new two-year contract in May 2015. However, he needed to avoid a poor start to the season as chairman
Norman Smurthwaite warned he was prepared to make "ruthless decisions" if the club were struggling by September. The first signings of the season were powerful former
loanee defender
Remie Streete from
Newcastle United, and former
Norwich City youth player
Sam Kelly. Midfielder
Sam Foley also joined the "Valiants" on a two-year contract, choosing to leave
relegated Yeovil Town just after picking up Yeovil's Player of the Year award. Page further strengthened the defence and midfield by signing
Walsall right-back
Ben Purkiss and
Crewe Alexandra defensive midfielder
Anthony Grant. Page needed to find a cost-effective forward with the club both short on strikers following the departure of
Tom Pope and
Ben Williamson and with little funds available due to a large cut to the wage bill, and so brought in young
Watford striker
Uche Ikpeazu on loan, having been impressed by Ikpeazu's performances for Crewe last season. Another former Crewe favourite,
A-Jay Leitch-Smith, was also signed after impressing Page during pre-season. The eighth and final summer signing was
Ryan Inniss, who was confirmed as joining on a season-long loan from
Crystal Palace after being linked with a return to
Vale Park for many weeks. On 6 August, Vale signed goalkeeper
Jak Alnwick on a short-term deal; he was signed to compete with
Sam Johnson for a first-team place as
Chris Neal was out injured at the start of the season. The season opened with the derby against Crewe Alexandra at
Gresty Road, and the game ended 0–0 with eight players making their debuts for Vale; Crewe boss
Steve Davis admitted Vale were the better team and had
man of the match goalkeeper
Ben Garratt to thank for the
clean sheet. Two days later a third former
Newcastle United Academy graduate arrived in striker
JJ Hooper, who had scored 20 goals in 29 games the previous season for
Havant & Waterlooville. The unbeaten start continued with a 1–1 draw with
Gillingham,
Louis Dodds scoring the equalising goal to secure the point. An injury-time
penalty from
Sam Foley then rescued a point away at
Swindon Town as Vale twice came from behind against an attractive Swindon side; the penalty was awarded in bizarre circumstances as
Jordan Williams handled the ball from a
corner to try and stop the game after seeing a teammate lying injured on the
pitch. Vale then cruised to a comfortable 3–0 home victory over
Doncaster Rovers despite Foley missing a penalty early in the game. Yet another player arrived in the form of central midfielder
Jak McCourt, signed on a one-month loan from
Leicester City. The unbeaten start to the season came to an end at
Bradford City when
Devante Cole scored the only goal of the game four minutes into stoppage time. Vale let slip a two-goal lead over
Wigan Athletic on 12 September, but Ikpeazu managed to claim all three points for Vale after Wigan's equalising goalscorer
Leon Barnett was
sent off for bringing down Andoh.
Millwall were the next visitors to Vale Park, and like Wigan had been relegated from the Championship the previous season, but unlike Wigan managed to beat the Vale 2–0 with a professional performance. Vale then travelled to
Bury and slipped to a 1–0 defeat in a poor game that was decided by a set-piece. Vale came from behind at
Fleetwood Town to win 2–1 after Page
substituted top-scorer Ikpeazu for
Colin Daniel, who went on to score the equalising goal. The situation was reversed at home to
Oldham Athletic, Ikpeazu coming off the bench to secure a point against the division's away draw specialists, though Page again bemoaned his team's habit of conceding form
set pieces. Vale put in a highly impressive performance to defeat
Sheffield United 2–1 and climb to within one point of the
play-off places. They failed to build on the result however, falling to a 1–0 loss at
Southend United;
Phil Brown said the Southend performance was the best he had seen as Southend manager. The story before the
Peterborough United game was that Jak Alnwick was to line up against his elder brother
Ben Alnwick, though the headlines after the game focused on Vale's penalty takers, as
Michael O'Connor marked his return from injury by missing a penalty and central midfield partner Foley later missed a second penalty in the game to squander two points in what ended as a 1–1 draw. Vale then had a tough mid-week game at
Colchester United, and lost 2–1 after suffering two injuries in the first half. More significantly Andoh suffered damage to his
anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and was ruled out for the rest of the season. Ikpeazu was sent off 25 minutes into Vale's trip to high-flying
Burton Albion, but ironically it was only after the hosts also went down to ten men late into the game that Vale conceded two goals to lose 2–0. Vale ended a poor October with a 2–0 home victory over
Shrewsbury Town. On 14 November, Vale picked up all three points at
Oakwell after a 2–1 victory over
Barnsley. Less than 40 hours after their FA Cup first round victory, Vale then had a home fixture against
Chesterfield on a snow covered pitch, but managed to put in a high quality performance and claim a 3–2 win. Their home game against
Blackpool was the players' third game in five days, but they showed no signs of fatigue as two late goals secured a 2–0 victory. They failed to end the month unbeaten however, as they fell to a 2–1 defeat at
Rochdale; after the game Page said he was "gobsmacked" by the
referee's key decisions to award Rochdale a penalty when
Carl Dickinson had "definitely taken the ball", to deny Vale a penalty after Ikpeazu was "absolutely poleaxed" in the
penalty box, and to send Dickinson off when he "hasn't touched the lad at all and the lad goes down like he has been shot." Page was nominated for the
League One Manager of the Month award. Despite revelations off-the-pitch and a disappointing FA Cup exit, Vale kept their league form steady on 12 December with a 1–1 home draw with
Scunthorpe United. However, they then came away from a trip to high-flying Walsall with a 2–0 defeat in a game that typified the team's unsuccessful negative
tactics away from home.
Captain Carl Dickinson defended the team's record however, stating that negative fans who booed should "shut up and get behind the team". A trip to the
Ricoh Arena on boxing day to face
Coventry City seemed to be heading for a goalless draw until Coventry took the lead ten minutes from full-time, leaving Page to rue his team's missed opportunities in the first half. Vale ended the year with a 1–0 home win over Bury, maintaining their excellent form at Vale Park. A waterlogged pitch meant Vale had to wait until a trip to Blackpool on 9 January to open the year, and Vale managed to continue their good form with a hard-earned 1–0 victory, Leitch-Smith the goalscorer. Their away form remained poor however, as they were well beaten at Millwall on 17 January. The team were then booed off after surrendering a 1–0 lead over ten man Bradford to draw 1–1. Page then entered the
transfer market, bringing in
Jamaica international striker
Theo Robinson and taking
Cardiff City winger
Matty Kennedy on a one-month loan (which was later extended by two months). Kennedy started the next game, as Leitch-Smith scored both of Vale's goals in a 2–1 win over Doncaster Rovers. However, Vale ended the month with a 3–0 defeat at Wigan following a first-half
red card for
Ryan McGivern. Vale began February just a point outside the play-offs after recording what Page described as an "ugly" 1–0 win over Swindon. Vale then outplayed Coventry, but needed a sensational goal from Sam Kelly to win a point and a 1–1 draw. Vale then rounded off a series of three successive home games with a 0–0 draw with Fleetwood. Injury to Alnwick meant that Neal was recalled from his loan spell at Doncaster Rovers for the trip to Sheffield United, which ended in a 1–0 defeat from a
Billy Sharp goal. They ended the month with an impressive 3–1 home win over Southend to remain in touch with the play-off places. Struggling Oldham held Vale to a 1–1 draw on 1 March, having lost their slender lead to a disputed penalty. A 2–0 home win over bottom-club Colchester kept the Vale in touch with the play-offs. The season appeared to be petering out as Vale trailed by 2–0 at
half-time at Peterborough, but they turned the game around completely in the second half to claim a 3–2 victory. Page praised the character of his players after revealing eight players had paid to stay in a local hotel the night before to save travelling on the day. However, the next game saw Page apologising to the fans after league leaders Burton ended Vale's 14-game unbeaten league run at home with a 4–0 win. Vale were heading for a 1–0 victory over Shrewsbury when a late error from Alnwick allowed
Sullay Kaikai's long-distance strike to become an equalising goal.> A 1–0 home defeat to play-off chasing Barnsley then ended any realistic hopes of a play-off place for the Vale. On 2 April, Port Vale collapsed away at Chesterfield, losing a convincing 1–0 half-time lead to lose 4–2; Page described the performance as "embarrassing" and "not acceptable". Seven days later, Vale went on to relegate nearby Crewe Alexandra with a comfortable 3–0 home victory, Dodds scoring a brace and Hooper claiming one goal. Vale went on to record a 2–0 win at sixth-place Gillingham using a 3–5–2
formation with McGivern, Streete, and
Richard Duffy operating as central defenders. The winning run continued with a comfortable 4–1 victory over Rochdale, before coming to an end with a 1–0 defeat at Scunthorpe. Walsall inflicted a heavy 5–0 on Vale on the final game of the season. Page offered new contracts to 13 out-of-contract players, and opted to release nine players: Lewis Bergin,
Achille Campion,
Colin Daniel, Omar Haughton (who was later re-signed after Page departed), Jonathon Kapend, Ryan McGivern, Chris Neal, Chekaine Steele, and Theo Robinson. However, Page himself would not stay to see any of these contracts signed, as he left the club to take charge at newly-
promoted Northampton Town. The first player to leave the club after rejecting a contract was Louis Dodds, who joined league rivals Shrewsbury Town. He was quickly followed by Richard Duffy, who dropped down two divisions to join
National League club
Eastleigh. Star midfielder Michael O'Connor, top-scorer A-Jay Leitch-Smith, and club captain Carl Dickinson also confirmed that they would be leaving the club after rejecting the club's new contract offer. The last to leave was Enoch Andoh, who could not agree terms with the club despite protracted negotiations.
Finances & ownership issues Chairman
Norman Smurthwaite stated that due to falling gate figures the club's wage bill would be cut for the 2015–16 season, meaning a severely reduced contract offer for star striker
Tom Pope, who chose to leave the club. In a statement released in March 2017, Smurthwaite stated that on 10 November 2015 he was approached by an American hedge fund consortium who were looking to buy the club. He further stated that a local business also approached the club secretary to purchase the club behind Smurthwaite's back. He set an asking price of
£4.25 million, stating "I have never lost money on a transaction in my adult life and I am not starting now". He also stated that plans to sign a striker in the January
transfer window would be scrapped. He continued to reveal that he had been physically assaulted by three Vale supporters in April 2014, though
Staffordshire Police could find no record of Smurthwaite's complaint. He also admitted that he had been planning on buying
Torquay United before being told by the
Football League that he would not be allowed to own two clubs. He further claimed that he had considered appointing
Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink as manager in September 2014, but decided against it partly because he believed that a racist minority of the club's supporters would make appointing a
black manager a bad idea. Smurthwaite signed an exclusivity deal with a local company in February 2016.
Ben Purkiss admitted that Smurthwaite's threat to cut player's wages by 40% had a destabilising effect on the squad. The exclusivity agreement ended in early March, with the club back on general sale. Smurthwaite said this was because the company had significantly reduced their offer and admitted that they needed to find further finances to conclude the deal. An upset seemed on the cards in the replay when Maidenhead took the lead, but Vale gradually took control of the game and
A-Jay Leitch-Smith scored a brace in an eventual 3–1 victory. Smurthwaite was rumoured to have planned to sack Page live on
BT Sport if the club lost the game, though he dismissed the rumour as untrue. A trip to mid-table
League Two side
Exeter City awaited in the second Round, and an all-round "hugely disappointing performance" resulted in a 2–0 defeat. After the game Smurthwaite and Page had a heated confrontation on the pitch, leading to speculation on the manager's future. Had Vale beaten Exeter then they would have had a lucrative home tie with
Liverpool in the third round. In the
League Cup first round, Vale hosted
Burnley, who had been relegated from the
Premier League the previous season;
Byron Moore scored the only goal of the game on 82 minutes. The second round draw took them to Premier League side
West Bromwich Albion, and Vale held
Tony Pulis's side to a 0–0 draw until the end of
extra time before losing the
penalty shoot-out. Vale hosted League Two side
Carlisle United in the first round of the
Football League Trophy, and Page named the strongest side at his disposal whilst "Blues" boss
Keith Curle left top-scorer
Jabo Ibehre on the bench;
Uche Ikpeazu scored the only goal of the game as a Vale booked their place in the second round. Despite naming a strong team at home to struggling
Blackpool, who made eight changes, Page was angered with the team for their performance as they crashed out at the Second round with a 2–1 defeat. ==Results==