Port Vale 1 Chasetown 1

M People's most up-lifting lyrics can never have been so clearly followed, writes Tim Nash.

Inspirational manager Charlie Blakemore's latest piece of motivation for his Chasetown players was to play the band's hit single 'What have you done today to make you feel proud?' before the biggest game of their lives.

Blakemore insisted his players fall silent for the four-minute duration of the track and you could have heard a pin drop in the visitors' dressing room at Vale Park as its words and their meaning permeated through each player.

Coming after another 15-minute Churchillian speech from boss Blakemore, the British Gas Business Southern League Midlands division outfit's players were ready to kick the door down to get at Vale.

And if that wasn't enough to inspire what must be the tightest dressing room in football, then the sight they were greeted by when they ran out of the tunnel must have brought a tear to the eye.

Around 3,000 flag-waving fans – it certainly looked far more than the official visiting figure of 1,981 – had travelled the 30 miles up the M6 to turn one end of the ground into a sea of blue and white.

Just like in the previous rounds against higher league opponents Cambridge City, Nuneaton and Team Bath, you were left feeling Chasetown couldn't lose, such was the positive vibe pumping through the whole Scholars family.

They have defied the odds time after time, yet this will rank as the club's most special performance of their 53-year history.

OK, they may have beaten three esteemed non-League teams in previous rounds, all of which play two and one levels higher respectively.

They drew against Oldham two years ago, but that was a round earlier and they were on their home patch, leaving the League One side on alien territory which played into Chasetown's hands.

But this time they held a team from five levels higher, an experienced, full-time League One side on their own ground – and deservedly so. Vale boss Lee Sinnott said he had Chasetown watched by four seperate people in their preparations. But maybe they were surprised just how well-drilled and professional they are.

The Scholars were just as fit, and they played just as much football as the home side.

The Vale fans knew it too, and after angry scenes at the final whistle when a handful of supporters confronted their shell-shocked players on the pitch, those who stayed behind cheered Chasetown's players off.

Belief

Feelings ran high, and reports emerged of Vale players having to be escorted to their cars as fans hung around keen to vent their frustrations. Chasetown's players milked the applause which came from all four sides of the ground – and they earned it.

Because this is a special group of people welded together by a special bond, from the chairman, secretary, manager, his staff and his players who are all galvanised by an unshakeable conviction that they are together, as one, and won't be beaten.

No one dared publicly hope they could come away from Vale Park with anything more than a defeat. But in that dressing room, and in whispered conversations between chairman John Donnelly and secretary Mike Joiner, they believed alright. Belief is something they draw on a lot at Chasetown. And it seems to work well.

Chasetown fully deserved to take the tie to a replay – but it wasn't just their dogged spirit and determination which saw them take them to within 90 minutes of a Church Street meeting with Dave Jones's Cardiff City – Robbie Fowler and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink et al – a week tomorrow.

They forced the first couple of chances – and could easily have taken the lead.

Unfortunately for Chasetown, they suffered for not taking their chances when livewire striker Luke Rodgers curled home a 25-yard free kick to put Vale ahead in the 18th minute. It's difficult to be critical of Chasetown at all after such a superb performance, but goalkeeper Lee Evans will be disappointed he couldn't do more after getting a good hand on the ball. And captain for the day John Branch conceded a needless foul on Paul Edwards for the setpiece.

But instead of cashing in on their lead, the goal failed to hand Vale the confidence or the initiative to take the game beyond the Scholars. It was Chasetown who dragged themseves back into the game to equalise with a bizarre goal from left wing-back Mark Branch a minute before the break.

There seemed little on when the former Walsall school of excellence and Hednesford player prepared to chip a free kick into the box 35 yards out. But after Perry challenged for the wind-assisted kick in the air, the ball was allowed to bounce before nestling in the top corner.

Vale poured forward in search of an equaliser, but apart from Miller's powerful 30-yarder which flew narrowly wide, and Rodgers briefly finding himself clean-through only to be denied by a superb sliding challenge by Williams, there was little to trouble the visitors. As the reality sank in for the Vale fans, chants of "You're not fit to wear the shirt" rang around the ground. But it was music to the ears for Chasetown. Just like M People.

Vale (4-4-2): Anyon; Miller, Westwood, Pilkington, Talbot; Whittaker, Rocastle, Laird, P Edwards; Willock, Rodgers.

Subs not used: Goodlad, McGregor, Harsley, Salmon, Glover.

Chasetown (3-5-2): Evans; Williams, Slater, Thomas; J Branch, Steane, Hawkins (S Smith 87), Holland, M Branch; Perry, Perrow (D Smith 63).

Subs not used: K Edwards, Spacey, Sargeant.

Attendance: 5,875.