GROUND HISTORY TRAVEL

Arguably the second largest team in Stoke-on-Trent, Port Vale have not enjoyed the same success as their city rivals Stoke City in recent years and have slipped towards the lower end of the Football League while having to endure the Potters' rise to the Premier League.

And it was in the 2009/10 FA Cup that the Valiants were introduced to Stevenage Borough for the first time, although Boro' having already famously played at the city's other footballing citadel. Port Vale are no stranger to FA Cup success over the course of their history.

While the club's league fortunes peaked during the mid-1990s, with a short stay in the second tier of English football, a number of top Premier League sides could tell you a tale about how they nearly came unstuck against the Valiants - in 1995/6, they disposed of holders Everton in the fourth round. Not bad, huh?

The FA Cup fixture between Boro' and Port VAle in 2009/10 was to act as a prelude for the first league encounter between the pair in 2010/1. Although Boro' lost out in the cup, there was enough to suggest that the battles between Stevenage and Port Vale will be tight affairs with little to give on each side.

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