Vale missing stars

VALE REC will have to make do without four key players as they aim for their first Upton win in 15 years. Holidaying Tristram Morgan will miss tomorrow's match.

And Vale Rec will also be without injured stars Craig Tyrrell, Andy Chamberlain and Matt Falla for the Channel Islands club championship showdown against Jersey champions Trinity.

Morgan, the Vale midfielder who is hot favourite to land the player of the season award, is stuck in Edinburgh this weekend. He can't get a flight home in time for tomorrow's match at Springfield in Jersey.

'Trim went up to Scotland as soon as the school term finished. We had hoped to find a way of getting him back, but that has proved impossible and unfortunately we will be without him,' said Vale's stand-in coach Chris Hamon.

'It's a big loss, of course. Trim has been at the hub of much of what has been good about the team this season and we all know that he's a tremendous player.'

But Hamon dismissed suggestions that Vale's task is hopeless without the mercurial veteran in their ranks.

'Trim's absence can be overcome. We might not be as exciting going forward as we would have been, but the available players are still good enough to do the job.

'Someone will come in and take Trim's place and we've been preparing for that worst-case scenario over the past couple of weeks. He's not in the equation, but we've geared up for the game with that in mind and the players have responded well.'

Hamon agreed to make a one-off return to the Vale hot-seat after his successor at the Corbet Field, Ray Blondel, decided to stay in the UK to play golf rather than return early for the Upton.

But since confirming his unexpected return, Hamon's selection problems have piled up.

He has also been hit with the news that Tyrrell has lost his battle to be fit for one of the biggest games in the green-and-yellows' history.

'Craig had a run out in a friendly against the island last Wednesday. He played for half-an-hour and looked fine, but then he had a bad reaction in his ankle the day after.'

Tyrrell missed the last two months of Vale's successful league campaign with an ankle injury.

'Craig felt some discomfort before the kick-off on Wednesday, but his ankle was heavily strapped and he thought it was a case of the strapping being too tight. Unfortunately, the ankle ballooned the following day and the Upton has probably come about a month too early for him.'

Falla broke an ankle while playing for Guernsey in November. He returned to make two substitute appearances for Vale in February, but then suffered a recurrence of the injury and has been ruled out of tomorrow's match. Chamberlain hasn't played since January and is the fourth member of the talented quartet who will miss Vale's big day.