Port Vale resumed first-team football for the first time since the 1939–40 season, entering the North Championship of the war league, which contained 54 teams but required only 18 games to be played by each club.

[1] A good crowd of 8,768 turned up at the Old Recreation Ground for the season-opener to Birmingham, and a 3–0 victory offered hope of a successful season.

[1] Vale managed to win 3–2 away at Chester on 6 January but lost six games of the series, including heavy 8–1 and 6–2 defeats to Potteries derby rivals Stoke City.

Though Vale managed to beat Stockport County 5–0, they lost five of their seven games, including two further poor defeats at the hands of Stoke City.

The opening game of the competition did, though, see a 3–2 win over Walsall; the Vale line-up included a 16-year-old Ronnie Allen and renowned Ireland international Peter Doherty.