Ray Walker

Born North Shields: September 28, 1963

Ray Walker – Port Vale Legend

Ray Walker is one of those players whose football career was defined by one moment. The wonderful curling 25 yard shot which he sent crashing into the Tottenham Hotspur net, which in turn sent them crashing out of the FA Cup, in 1988 is something which a whole generation of football fans can instantly associate him with.

His legacy to Port Vale and their fans, however, is infinitely greater than that one game. Ray Walker gave the Potteries club a decade of quality service during which he also made a lasting impression on many thousands of supporters following other second and third division clubs.

Although Walker’s name would become synonymous with Port Vale he actually started at Aston Villa and appeared destined to plot a loftier path than the one he would end up treading.

Villa signed Ray Walker as an apprentice after spotting his potential playing for Nottingham Boys and he boasted an impressive CV as a youth team player.

Not only did Walker earn selection for the England Youth team but he was an important part of the Villa side that won the FA Youth Cup of 1979-80.

Villa saw off a strong Millwall side in the semi finals before overcoming Manchester City in the final.

Although Millwall were a third division side at the time most of their youth team would go on to play regularly for the club in the Football League while City boasted players like Steve Mackenzie and Tommy Caton who already had first team experience and a future star in Clive Wilson.

Villa’s success was mainly due to a fine 3-1 win at Maine Road in the first leg of the final but the expected transition of players from this successful side into the first team never really happenend.

Several players, Walker included, skirted round the edges of the first team pool over the next few years but only Mark Walters made a lasting impression.

The hero of the final for instance, Trevor Ames whose hat trick at Maine Road was the difference between the two sides, would never force his way into the senior side at Villa Park and only manage a handful of league appearances with Hereford United after leaving Villa Park.

Ray Walker would fare better without ever quite making the grade at Villa Park.

The youngsters trying to break through were not helped by the fact that Villa had just assembled a side that would win them the league and the European Cup over the next two years.

It would prove impossible to break into this team and when it started to break up the club was in a position to spend big money on bringing in ready made replacements.

Walker, for instance, was up against Dennis Mortimer and Gordon Cowans for a place in the Villa midfield. Mortimer was the captain and Cowans the playmaker in chief. Ousting either of them would be a tall order.

Then the club paid big money for Andy Blair and Steve Hodge in turn to further obstruct the chances of progress for the developing Ray Walker.

Walker did get opportunities although these tended to be few and far between. He made his first team debut towards the end of the 1982-83 season deputising for Mortimer in a 2-0 defeat at West Ham and got another taste of senior action early on in the following season.

Having featured in a win over West Ham and a creditable draw at Everton Walker might have thought he would be given a prolonged run in the side but this never happened.

At the start of the 1984-85 season he was loaned out to Port Vale in the fourth division in a move that would have huge consequences on his future career but the couple of months which he spent at Vale Park initially only served to prove that he had too much about him to be playing his football at that level full time.

Walker was given a decent run in the Villa side towards the end of that season and he was also in and out of the side at the start of 1985-86 but the signing of Hodge signalled the end of his Villa Park ambitions, which had been raised by the departure of Cowans for Italy in the close season.

Cowans was the player at Villa who Ray Walker most resembled in style of play. Both were superb passers of the ball over short or long range and both were always eager to look to produce the killer pass, the ball that would split the opposition defence and provide a chance for the strikers.

It takes a lot for that type of player to truly convince a manager to place his total trust in their talents, however, and while Cowans had been able to create a niche for himself in the Villa side and then gradually come to dominate it Walker was never allowed the chance.

Tony Barton and Graham Turner in turn saw enough to put him in their teams but could never convince themselves that Walker was a player who could dominate games at the highest level week in, week out.

The dividing line between success and failure can often be remarkably fine and perhaps Ray Walker did not quite have what it takes to be a real top class midfield player. He could not have been far away, however, and having been denied the chance of running Villa’s midfield he returned to Port Vale and did exactly that job for them for the best part of a decade.

As the 1986-87 season approached it was fairly evident that Walker would need to look elsewhere if he was to get regular first team football and Port Vale were keen to offer it him.

His impressive loan spell was still fresh in the minds of all at Vale Park and as the club had just won promotion to the third division they were in a better position to entice him away from the top flight.

£12,000 was all it took to take him from Villa Park to Vale Park and that would prove to be one of football’s great bargains.

Ray Walker was immediately the main man in Vale’s midfield and was one of the biggest influences as the club managed to adjust to the higher level.

Almost immediately there was a League Cup tie with Manchester United but this was not yet the Port Vale that would become such stubborn cup opponents later on in Walker’s stay and they fell to a 7-2 aggregate defeat.

The club was happy just to stay clear of relegation trouble during this campaign and although they were wildly inconsistent they were never in any danger of going down.

The attacking principles of John Rudge were already there for all to see. Sometimes the results could be spectacularly good, sometimes just the opposite but the approach brought Vale enough wins to keep them safely in mid table and allowed them to build for the future.

Typical of this season was the 6-1 home defeat inflicted by Blackpool which was quickly followed by a 6-0 win at Fulham.

Ray Walker missed only one game during this campaign and he was the chief creative source while Andy Jones was the main beneficiary of his probing, banging in goals for fun up front.

Vale would cash in on the prolific Jones and his move to Charlton allowed Rudge to show that his inspired purchase of Walker was no fluke and over the next couple of seasons some further shrewd signings combined with a couple of finds from the youth team would turn the Valiants into genuine promotion candidates.

It was their cup success against Spurs that really brought the club into the spotlight, however.

The game was played on an extremely heavy pitch which persuaded Terry Venables that good football would be at a premium. He packed his midfield with combative workers like Mabbutt and Fenwick in order to match Vale in what he anticipated would be a physical battle.

As it was Vale, inspired by Walker, actually outpassed and outplayed Tottenham for long periods to run out worthy winners.

This was undoubtedly Ray Walker’s afternoon. Solidly built he could handle himself in a challenge but his real gifts were on the ball. He had a delicacy of touch which was surprising given his physique and his vision was outstanding.

He had a definite penchant for the long, raking pass and could pick out colleagues at almost any distance, often changing the point of attack to devastating effect.

This was one of those games when almost everything he tried came off and the highlight came early. With fifteen minutes gone he trapped a booming ball out of defence 25 yards out, right of centre, and sent a swerving, dipping drive that arched emphatically beyond Tony Parks in the Spurs goal.

Less than ten minutes later Walker’s free kick caused panic in the Tottenham defence and Phil Sproson banged in the second.

Spurs could only pull one goal back and Vale had one of the most notable victories of their history to cherish.

Vale would dominate Watford to a still greater degree in the 5th round but without finding the net and despite a gallant effort in the replay they would go out after a 2-0 defeat.

Ray Walker was able to confirm his class in these games, however, dictating play again at Vale Park and coming close with a couple of long range efforts at Vicarage Road.

It was clear that Vale had found themselves a gem in Walker and his partnership with the burgeoning young talent Robbie Earle provided the backbone of the clubs’ promotion challenge in 1988-89.

It quickly became a three way battle for the two automatic promotion places between Vale, Wolves and Sheffield United.

The Valiants were sandwiched between the two bigger clubs at Christmas with Wolves leading the way and the situation remained the same by mid April.

It was then that Vale suffered a crucial stumble, taking only two points from four games, and despite winning their final three games they would end up behind Sheffield United in third place on goal difference.

This was a bitter pill to take as they went into the play offs having finished a full nine points clear of Fulham in 4th but justice was done as Vale saw off Preston North End and Bristol Rovers to claim promotion.

The goals were provided by Earle and Darren Beckford while Walker could be relied upon for the guile.

This saw Vale take their place in the second division for only the fourth season since the war and again Walker was instrumental in helping the club settle in a higher grade.

The club suffered a difficult start but a strong October and November took them clear of danger at the bottom and their improvement manifested itself in another fine FA Cup victory.

The Valiants could only draw with Derby at Vale Park in their 3rd round clash but with the carrot of a meeting with his former club Aston Villa on offer Ray Walker turned in another top performance in the replay to lead Vale to a thrilling 3-2 win.

Walker found the target with one of his specials again in this tie and although it is not as widely remembered as the one against Spurs it might even have given him greater satisfaction, coming as it did against Peter Shilton.

Walker’s dream return to Villa Park turned into a nightmare, however, as his old club humbled his new one 6-0 to provide him with one of the most chastening experiences of his career.

After another steady season in 1990-91 Vale slumped to a comprehensive relegation the following season when Walker was out injured for much of the campaign and the club went from the beginning of December to the end of March without winning a game.

Vale recovered from a poor start in the newly formed Division Two to finish just one point behind Bolton outside the automatic promotion places but Walker was forced to sit out the play offs due to injury and although they defeated Stockport County over two legs to reach Wembley they crashed to West Bromwich Albion in the final after having Peter Swan sent off.

The club again had to recover from a shoddy start in 1993-94 but this time they managed to sneak into the runners up spot after winning eight of their last nine games.

With Walker becoming increasingly troubled by injury and now into his thirties he suddenly found his place at Port Vale under threat from the newly arrived Ian Bogie, another player in a similar mould.

As Vale got to grips with life in Division One Walker found himself out on loan to Cambridge United in the second division for a month although he was to return and play his part in Vale’s successful effort to stay clear of relegation.

The following season would be Ray Walker’s last as a first team regular at Port Vale but it was a suitably eventful campaign.

Finishing 12th in the league was a decent enough achievement but the real excitement again came in the cup.

Walker was no longer certain of a place but featured consistently in an extremely attacking line up. Rudge was now playing with out and out wingers in Jon McCarthy and Steve Guppy and with Martin Foyle, Tony Naylor and Lee Mills battling it out for the striking positions this left a lot of ground for the two central midfield players to cover.

This was not exactly the forte of either Walker or Bogie but the adventurous style was successful often enough to make it a memorable season.

Walker, who didn’t manage a league goal all season, struck twice as Vale beat Crystal Palace 4-3 in a 3rd round FA Cup replay. He opened the scoring early on and popped up with the winner during extra time to send his side through to a 4th round meeting with Everton.

He was in the starting line up at Goodison Park but after Bogie came on as a substitute to grab a last minute equaliser he was left on the bench for the replay.

Bogie was again the hero as Vale recorded another memorable victory in the replay while Walker was restricted to a late appearance as sub.

In the 5th round, however, Rudge decided for the trip to Leeds United that he needed to tighten his side somewhat and included both Walker and Bogie in a 4-5-1 system.

Vale adapted to this formation brilliantly and played Leeds off the park without managing the goal their performance so richly deserved.

They kept the same formation for the replay at Vale Park and were again widely acknowledged as the better side only to lose to two Gary McCallister goals.

The Anglo Italian Cup also provided excitement with Vale reaching the final. Ray Walker was again on the bench and although he was introduced before half time this was only because Genoa were handing them a lesson on their way to a 5-2 win.

Walker was just about able to bring up 400 appearances for the club, fittingly a 3-0 romp against Birmingham City, before quitting Vale Park to become player-coach at Leek Town, newly promoted to the Conference, in 1997.

He would have a brief spell in charge at Leek before leaving to take over as player manager with Newcastle Town where he certainly instilled his virtues as a player into a side which narrowly missed out on promotion twice and reached the semi finals of the FA Vase playing with a style rarely associated with that level.

In 2000 Walker joined the backroom staff at Crewe Alexandra where he now holds the position of Football In the Community Officer and it seems appropriate that such a refined footballer should end up at a club famous for its insistence on passing football.

Medals and glory were never likely to be on the agenda for Ray Walker once he had settled into a life pulling the strings across the Port Vale midfield but his quality did not go unnoticed during his years at Vale Park.

He was voted into the PFA Team of the Season three times in the third tier as proof that his talents were appreciated and recognised outside Burslem.

There is no doubt that his deeds for the club will last long in the memory of all those who saw him wearing the white and black with such distiction.

On the occasion of his 400th appearance one of the clubs’ directors, caught up in the emotion of the day, declared that he “would crawl from the edge of the world to pay tribute to the man,” and although some hyperbole might be detected the point certainly got across.

Just in case it didn’t the same director had Sinead O’Connor’s hit song Nothing Compares 2U blasted out over the tannoy in his honour and then concluded that “when the history of Port Vale is finally written he will go down as our greatest ever player.”

Whether that is the case can only ever be a matter of conjecture but his performances over a sustained period of time undoubtedly make him a genuine contender.

Tall, strong in possession, an immacualte distributor of the ball over short or long range and packing a dangerous shot from distance, Ray Walker was something of a lower division Glenn Hoddle who added more than a touch of class to Port Vale through a memorably exciting decade.

Ray Walker’s Career Statistics
CLUB GAMES GOALS
Aston Villa 23 0
Port Vale (Loan) 15 1
Port Vale 353 33
Cambridge United (Loan) 5 0
TOTAL 394 34