Chard came close to grabbing a point from this game, pulling a goal back as their youthful forwards finally made telling use of the wings and Vale's veterans began to tire.

A cagey start to the first half resulted in little goalmouth action at either end, but plenty of midfield endeavour from both sides and fine performances from Chard's George Parris and the experienced Gary Wheaton. The home side slowly built more attacking momentum, but keeper Luke Bradshaw and his back four were equal to the task until Steve Mahoney misjudged an attempted interception giving a Vale forward the space to put a telling cross deep into the D for a team mate to latch onto and beat Bradshaw from close range.

Chard's best first half chance fell to Tom Sainsbury whose angled shot was deflected away at full stretch by Vale's keeper and the Chard defence had to see off a final penalty corner on the stroke of half time to keep the deficit to a single goal.

The game really opened up in the second 35 minutes with more action in both Ds but with both defences coping with reasonable comfort in the early stages. It was just as Chard appeared to be really finding attacking fluency that they conceded again. Vale forwards rode attempted tackles and broke through a couple of challenges to set up sight of goal in the centre of Chard's D and took their chance. Bradshaw may feel he could have done better but he was on agile form to deny Vale two or three other clear goalscoring chances in the half to go with others made before halftime.

In the final quarter, Chard finally began to stretch the home side with some slick approach play down both wings. The pace and dribbling skills of Sainsbury, George Criddle and Joel Handscombe shone through alongside the energy of Ollie Bartlett, the ball distribution of Arthur Handley and continued midfield promptings of George Parris and Wheaton. Alan Cheffey had trundled forward to force a save by the home keeper from one penalty corner and, from another, Handscombe topped off his fine performance bundling home the rebound after Sainsbury's initial shot was parried. It proved to be too little too late, as the final whistle followed a few minutes later.