Port Vale's first-team may not be featuring in a tournament this summer, but another squad associated with the club certainly will be.

Portly Vale, the club's fans' team will travel to the University of Leeds' Boddington Hall this weekend to take part in the 13^th annual WorldNet tournament.

Run by the Internet Football Association, 64 teams will battle it out over two days to get their hands on the silverware. After the first day's group stage, the tournament splits in two on the Sunday for the knockout stage. The top two from each group enter the cup, while the bottom twoenter the plate competition.

They began training in earnest ahead of this year's trip, last month reaching the semi-finals of a tournament run by the NationalFootballMuseum before losing in a penalty shoot-out to Burnley.

The IFA also run a league coinciding with the football season which saw Portly Vale finish 32^nd out of 87^th, six places above only locals rivals Motley Crewe, who represent Crewe Alexandra - something which organiser Stuart Kerby is extremely proud of.

He said: "This season has been a productive one as we've brought in six or seven new players and bedded them in properly. The strength of the squad is 10 times what it was compared to previous seasons and as a result we've notched up several wins as well as putting in some impressive performances.

"We play a good style of football, a lot of wing play. If I had to compare it, I'd say the way we played under Rudgie with McCarthy and Guppy on the wings!"

That shows how far the team has come since it began in 1997 Valemail, a forum based on the use of e-mails.

The first game was a 6-3 defeat at the hands of Stockport County and there is only one survivor from that game still playing today - Stu.

Personnel isn't the only thing that's changed. Kerby was once the youngest member of the squad, but now he's the oldest even at the tender age of 25.

Portly are no strangers to the WorldNet competition having first entered in 2006. They reached the last 16 before eventually being knocked out by Dundee, but after a successful season Kerby is looking to end on a high.

He said: "I'm confident we can equip ourselves properly. The aim is to get as far as possible, either in the main cup competition or the plate.

"We're quietly confident about the group stage and finishing in the top two. If not, and we drop into the plate, then I think we'll be one of the fancied teams in there.

"Qualifying for the cup knockout would be a tremendous achievement and would really show how far we've come in such a short space of time. Whatever happens we'll be there to represent the club and hopefully do ourselves proud."

For WorldNet it's the 13^th tournament, but Portly Vale will be hoping it won't prove unlucky for them. Good luck lads from everybody at Port Vale FC