A boxing kangaroo, a fortunate shirt and ‘going toe-to-toe’: How a Port Vale crew that did not value a penny plans to take down Chelsea’s £1.5bn superstars

Jon Brady grimaces at the mention of the tattoo on his shoulder hidden beneath a training top. ‘It’s a rubbish tattoo and I should have never got it,’ says the Port Vale manager.

‘I did it here when I was 23 with one of my best mates who was a Manchester United supporter. He got a red devil on his shoulder at the time. We both look at it 30-odd years later and go, “why did we do that?”’

Still, a boxing kangaroo isn’t the worst symbol for the 51-year-old Australian who had to fight for a career in the lower divisions of English football as a player, and is now doing the same as a coach.

Brady remembers being punched by his manager at half-time of a reserves game at Swansea – ‘it happened and I move on, it probably motivated me to never have players feel that way again’ – and having a second job for 18 years which meant he was coaching youngsters the night before clinching promotion from League Two with Northampton Town away to Tranmere in 2023.

And last year he ran the London Marathon in aid of the Armed Forces, having put his Northampton players through army camps at Rutland.

‘They taught us a great lesson in leadership, in connection, in sticking together, in going through tough moments, and that’s helped me a lot in my coaching career as well,’ says Brady, who got his B Licence in coaching at the same young age he got the tattoo. ‘I’ve found a way. I played at that level probably because I was an average footballer, simple as that. But I’ve dedicated my life coming over from Australia at the age of 17, and the only job I know is football.’

Brady is a member of an exclusive club in that he has managed more than 500 games and never been sacked as a coach, at non-League Brackley Town, Northampton and now Port Vale.

When Vale appointed him in January, they were bottom of League One and 10 points from safety. Now they are still bottom and the gap is 14 points with eight games to go. Even so, Brady remains popular with the fans and owners who brought him in with one eye on getting them back up once relegation is confirmed, their second in three years as they yo-yo between the third and fourth tiers.

‘Let’s not beat around the bush,’ he says. ‘I will never give up on it, but it’s looking pretty likely because of the mountainous points total.’

In the meantime, he faces another battle against the odds this Saturday when Vale take on Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in their first appearance in the FA Cup quarter-finals for 72 years.

To illustrate the gulf between the two clubs, Chelsea have spent £1.5billion on players under their US ownership group. This week it emerged that the Premier League club blew £65.1m on agents’ fees alone in the 12-month period to February. In contrast, the team that started Vale’s shock win in the last round over Sunderland – a team five places below Chelsea in the top flight – didn’t cost a penny.

Brady smiles. ‘I think it certainly puts a lot of things in perspective,’ he says. ‘But no one looks at the accountancy book when you’re out there going toe-to-toe. No one cares. We’re going to give them a go. One thing we have proved in one-off games is we can compete with the opposition. Out of a season of a lot of low points, I feel that for me, the players and hopefully the fans, it’s been one bright spark for them at least.’

Brady acknowledges that home advantage and a poor pitch at Vale Park played a part in the win over Sunderland. Stamford Bridge will be different, with a capacity around six times Vale’s average attendance this season. Before training on Thursday, he asked his former Burnley striker Andre Gray and ex-Norwich winger Onel Hernandez to speak to the rest of the squad about their experiences of playing there.

‘Just to give the guys a feel for it,’ Brady explains. ‘We’re going to play on a pitch that’s going to be a lot faster, a lot more well-kept. Some of the players won’t have played in a ground or an atmosphere like that.’

An empty bottle of Jack Daniels has been placed in front of the statue of Lemmy, the legendary frontman of Motorhead and hellraiser who was born here in Burslem, one of six towns that make up Stoke-on-Trent.

Walk a few yards from Market Place, where the statue was unveiled last year, and you reach the Red Lion, the vacant pub where another of Burslem’s favourite sons grew up supporting Vale just around the corner from the stadium.

Robbie Williams is president of the club who calls regularly from his home in Los Angeles to speak to owner Carol Shanahan, a local businesswoman who has pumped in £19.6m of her own money to underwrite the club’s losses.

Lemmy and his mates, including Ozzy Osbourne, sold out Vale Park in 1981 for a heavy metal festival so loud that local residents who objected were offered a day trip to Blackpool to get away from the noise. Safe to say, Williams’ homecoming gig in 2022 was a little easier on the ear.

Two years earlier, the former Take That star even helped design the team’s kit. This season, it has a retro look based on the only other Vale team to play in the quarters, back in 1953-54 when they stunned Stanley Matthews and holders Blackpool en route to the semi-finals, before losing to eventual winners West Brom – even to the point of omitting a shirt sponsor.

So it’s fitting that the current side have somehow managed to emulate them, despite their miserable league form. Vale have won as many games in the FA Cup and Carabao Cup (seven) this season as they have in League One.

They went out of the League Cup at home to Arsenal, but have only conceded one goal in eight hours of FA Cup football – and that was to Maldon and Tiptree of the Isthmian Division One North, in the first round proper when winning 5-1 in November.

Vale’s four subsequent ties have ended 1-0 with Ben Waine scoring the winner in three of them. The New Zealander with Geordie roots was delighted when Alan Shearer messaged him after heading the winner against Sunderland.

It was Vale’s biggest FA Cup win since beating holders Everton in 1996 and Tottenham in 1988, both under long-serving manager John Rudge whose statue stands outside Vale Park.

‘I’ve got (Shearer’s tweet) saved because I think that’s something worth holding onto,’ says Waine. ‘That was a cool one, especially to show the parents as well. They were going crazy about that. I couldn’t keep the shirt because we’ve made it through to the next round. Once our run does come to an end, wherever that is, I will be holding onto that shirt as well.’

Waine made the 27-hour journey back from Auckland this week after scoring in New Zealand’s thumping 4-1 win over Chile. His family will be up in the early hours as usual to watch the Chelsea game on TV, although the teatime kick-off means they can at least lie in until 5am.

The 24-year-old is looking forward to going to the World Cup this summer and, who knows, maybe a trip to Wembley before then, all while staring relegation to League Two in the face.

‘When you say it like that, it’s crazy. There’s no real way to describe it, except to just enjoy this run as much as we can,’ says Waine. ‘It’s been a tough season, there’s no hiding from that, so it’s really nice to have that reward.’

It’s an unlikely combination, the Aussie and the Kiwi, looking to cause a huge upset against the world club champions. So will Brady get another tattoo if Vale pull off another giantkilling? ‘I think I’m safe,’ he replies.