Burslem Globetrotters: Port Vale’s travelling stars plot Chelsea shock

Australian manager Joe Brady and New Zealand striker Ben Waine have guided League One strugglers to quarter-finals

The Port Vale manager, Jon Brady, left Australia as a 17-year-old to chase his dream of playing in the United Kingdom. Spells at Brentford, Swansea and Wycombe did not make a first-team debut a reality. The sacrifice would not be wasted as determination to make a career in England grew stronger, becoming a non-league stalwart, but always with an eye on what came next.

Like Saturday’s FA Cup quarter-final opponent, Chelsea’s head coach Liam Rosenior, Brady plotted a route to the dugout from early on, earning his B licence at the age of 23. Twenty-eight years later, he has managed more than 500 league games, in charge of Brackley and Northampton before joining League One’s bottom club in January, and embarking on a surprising Cup run.

“I wasn’t as good a footballer as Liam Rosenior,” says Brady as he casts his eyes over the Vale Park pitch. “If I wanted to stay in the sport I love so much, that I’ve dedicated my life to by coming over from Australia at the age of 17, [I had to ask myself] what’s the only job I know? The only job I know is football.

“I realised I’m not going to have the finances I could live off for the rest of my life and football’s not going to help me that way. So what I did do is the next best thing I knew – I loved the game. I liked helping people and making a difference with people and that’s why I got into coaching.”

This is the second time Vale have reached this stage, doing so 72 years ago. There was great financial disparity between Vale and Sunderland in the last round, although a muddy pitch helped level things up, with the home team’s starting XI costing nothing in transfer fees. Conditions will be far better at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea, who have spent almost £1.5bn on players since Todd Boehly’s takeover in 2022 and this week announced a record £262.4m loss for last season.

“No one looks at a financial book or an accountancy book when you’re out there going toe-to-toe against the opposition,” says Brady. “No one cares. All people want to see is performance or result. We’re going to go there and give the best version we can of ourselves.”

One incident that shaped Brady happened at Swansea, when a coach punched him during a reserve match. “It probably motivated me to never have players feel that way again,” he says. His style is all about details and giving the players everything they need to know. He asked his striker Andre Gray – who featured for Watford in the 2019 FA Cup final – to speak about his experiences of playing at Stamford Bridge to give teammates an understanding of what they will be up against.

Brady ran his own private coaching business for 18 years, implementing PE lessons and coaching junior teams in Northampton and Milton Keynes, employing 40 people. Even when in charge of the Cobblers, he would take sessions with the under-eights on a Friday night before leading his team towards League One promotion on the Saturday. Developing young talent is a passion of Brady’s, wanting to see people achieve greater things than he did on the pitch.

Whenever he needs a reminder of home he does not have to look far, although the boxing kangaroo on his shoulder is one of few regrets. “It’s a rubbish tattoo and I should have never got it. I got it with one of my best mates who was a Manchester United supporter and 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?”

Brady is not the only one to have moved across the world to Port Vale. There is fellow Australian Joe Gauci and Ben Waine, the match-winner against Sunderland, hails from New Zealand. The striker returned on Wednesday after scoring on international duty against Chile in Auckland, travelling 27 hours in preparation for facing Chelsea.

Waine left behind Wellington Phoenix to try his luck in his Newcastle-supporting parents’ homeland, joining Plymouth in 2023. They watch every game, getting up at 3am each weekend, which was more than worthwhile when the striker downed Sunderland, celebrating with an homage to Alan Shearer. The former England captain lauded Waine on X and sent him a good-luck message this week.

“I haven’t framed it, but I’ve got it saved because that’s something worth holding on to,” Waine says of the social media post. “That was a cool one, especially to show the parents. They were going crazy about that.”

Cup competitions have provided light relief in a desperate league season. Vale sit bottom of League One, 14 points from safety and have scored 29 goals in 38 matches. In the FA and Carabao Cups, Port Vale have won seven matches, the same as in their league campaign, losing to the Premier League leaders, Arsenal, and eliminating three from higher divisions. Six thousand fans will head to London from Staffordshire in the hope of a repeat of the last round.

“It’s been a tough season,” Waine says. “There’s no hiding from that. In terms of players, staff, family members, supporters, it is really nice to have that kind of reward and to see the stadium the way it was after Sunderland. It felt like as a club we really needed that. Just to see the way the stadium was bouncing, the fans were immense that game. It is really important to have those moments when it’s not going amazingly in the league.”

If they do it again, the league form will be forgotten in Burslem and Oceania.