League One saw its first draw of the season as recently relegated Cardiff City resisted pressure from newly promoted Port Vale on Thursday night. The match saw a controversially disallowed goal for Port Vale, as well as debut for Cardiff in goal, as Nathan Trott started following his loan move from FC Copenhagen.
Line-ups
Port Vale
Port Vale made five changes to their line-up last weekend, when they lost 2-1 away to Rotherham. Kyle John came in for Cameron Humphreys at the back, Ronan Curtis replaces Ben Waine up front, and the three changes in midfield brought Ryan Croasdale, Funso Ojo and Liam Gordon.
TEAM NEWS đź“°
— Port Vale Football Club (@OfficialPVFC) August 7, 2025
The Gaffer makes five changes for tonight's visit of Cardiff City#PVFC | @TheTurmericCo pic.twitter.com/MIIZALUGM4
Cardiff City
Cardiff made three changes, including the introduction of debutant Nathan Trott in goal, following their comeback 2-1 victory against Peterborough to replace Matthew Turner. Adding to this was Calum Chambers coming in for William Fish at the back and Chris Willock, brother of Newcastle player Joe, replaced Cian Ashford.
🔢
— Cardiff City FC (@CardiffCityFC) August 7, 2025
Three changes to our starting lineup - Trott, Chambers and Willock come into the XI! đź’™#CityAsOne pic.twitter.com/bRSfEKOA5F
First half
Cardiff City opened the first half with a spell of possession, showing former Manchester City EDS manager Brian Barry-Murphy’s intention to play out from the back. Trott impressed with this, performing a nice turn to beat a pressing Port Vale player. Nothing would come of this possession as Cardiff struggled to find a decent final ball, and as the half wore on Port Vale began to impose themselves more and more, physically dominating Cardiff and disallowing their passing game. The Valiants were clearly interested in making the most of set pieces, with the first real chance coming from a corner as defender Jesse Debrah causes a scramble with his header. Cardiff continued to attempt to pass their way through Port Vale, but never found any real chances. Vale’s forwards enjoyed their battles with Cardiff’s centre-backs, and helped their team up the field by controlling long balls while wrestling. A chance through on goal dropped to Ronan Curtis, but his attempt to play the ball across to a teammate was seized upon by Trott. The half wore on, Port Vale continued to press, but nothing came of it, and the referee whistled for the break with the score still 0-0.
Tight offside
Just two minutes into the second half, Mitch Clark received a ball played between the centre-back and left-back, controlled it, and finished coolly into the bottom left corner. The linesman had already flagged though, so the score remained deadlocked. Replays showed that the decision was incredibly tight. My personal instinct is that if VAR had been in effect, the decision would not have changed, although I’m sure a fair amount of time would have been spent arriving at that conclusion.
Michael Brown and Sean Morrison dissect THAT offside call! đź«Ł pic.twitter.com/lfLSrKEwA0
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) August 7, 2025
Cardiff steady the ship
The subsequent 10 minutes saw Port Vale continue to prod, and tempers flared as a clumsy two-footed challenge from Joel Bagan on Lorent Tolaj earned him a yellow card. Cardiff made a triple substitution on the hour, bringing on David Turnbull, William Fish and Cian Ashford for Joel Colwill, Dylan Lawlor and Ollie Turner. Just after this, a cross from Port Vale was headed and crashed off the crossbar. The linesman again flagged for offside, but this time he was unequivocally incorrect. Cardiff survived again, just barely, but from there they regained some degree of control. They still lacked any real threat, but Port Vale’s attacks went from constant to occasional. Port Vale had a chance to win the game around the 80th minute mark, as substitute Ben Waine received the ball from the left. Space opened up for him to shoot, but he had a teammate running into space directly in front of him. He opted to shoot, and missed well wide. Their final real chance came just as the clock ticked over into added time, as a scramble lead to a shot just on the edge of the area, but a Cardiff defender blocked it. The Bluebirds never really pushed to win the game, as their difficulty with final balls from the first half continued. A few half-decent crosses gave them some hope, but ultimately the home side were the only ones who looked like taking the three points.
Post-match
Port Vale midfielder George Byers spoke to Sky Sports following the game. He credited their control in the game to playing “aggressive, on the front foot, right from the whistle.” Would-be goalscorer Mitch Clark also spoke of the team's profligacy, stating “We’re creating the chances, so time will tell, and hopefully we’ll get some goals.” Darren Moore praised his team, saying “We were set up right, we had the right energy, we had the right temperament.” He further said “The only thing, if I’m critiquing the team in a small area, was that we could have shown that little bit of composure in the final third." Brian Barry-Murphy also spoke to Sky, saying in the first half his Cardiff players “misinterpreted where we should be on the pitch” and that from there the game “became quite transitional in nature, and Port Vale are really dangerous when the counter-attack really quickly."
"We dominated most of the game, we were the more effective team!"
— Sky Sports Football (@SkyFootball) August 7, 2025
Port Vale's George Byers & Mitch Clark reflect on a tough goalless draw against Cardiff City đź’¬ pic.twitter.com/z883GTCALP
Man of the Match
Sky gave their Man of the Match award to Mitch Clark; this seems fair given he is the only player to put the ball into the net, and was only denied a goal by the tightest of margins. I would also give honourable mentions to Port Vale’s two forwards, Curtis and Tolaj, who I felt did really well at allowing their team to advance up the pitch.
Conclusion
Both teams can probably take some positives from the result; Port Vale can be happy with how they dominated a team that were two divisions above them last year, and Cardiff will be glad to escape a difficult away game with a point and a clean sheet. While the game often lacked quality, both teams applied themselves very well and the tactical battle between Moore’s more direct, aggressive team and Barry-Murphy’s modern, more technical set-up was interesting to watch unfold.
