County sign Port Vale striker on two-year deal

County have signed Port Vale striker Richie Bennett for an undisclosed fee.

The six-foot-four centre forward, who originally came through the ranks as a schoolboy at Oldham Athletic, has signed a deal to stay with County until the end of 2021/22.

After leaving Oldham, the 29-year-old front man worked his way up through non-league playing for Curzon Ashton and Mossley before enjoying a hugely successful stint under Jim Gannon at Northwich Victoria, scoring 44 goals in two seasons, which earned him a move to Barrow where he scored 22 goals in just 53 games.

His goal-scoring exploits saw Richie catapulted into the Football League at the age of 26 with Carlisle United before joining Port Vale last summer.

Richie said: “I’ve always kept in touch with Jim wherever I’ve been and we’ve always had that contact, so when there was interest from County I spoke to my agent and it was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse. I talked to the gaffer at Vale and he said that he wouldn’t stand in my way, which I appreciated, and we managed to get it over the line.



“I’ve got a lot of good memories from Northwich with Jim, I did really well there and we had a good bunch of lads, and Jim being the great manager that he is we were successful and I’ve appreciated him for putting his trust in me.

“With County’s ambition and speaking to both Simon Wilson and the gaffer the expectation is clearly to get back to the Football League and that’s the main thing for me, I want to be a Football League player and we’ll do our best to make that happen.

“I already know Paul Turnbull who was at Barrow with me, he’s a good lad, but I’m sure they’ll all be a good set of lads. The club has everything it needs to be in the EFL, the stadium, the pitch, the fan base, the manager, the owner and good lads who are doing well, and next season they’ll be full time which can only help and they can go as far as they want to.



“I’ve not played for a few games so I need to get out on that pitch and do what I can to help County get up there. Every time I’ve played here there has always been a great crowd and you can hear the roar so it’s always been one of those places with a great atmosphere. I’ll give my all, and hopefully everything else will follow.”

County’s Director of Football Simon Wilson said: “As we’re trying to grow and evolve the team you naturally go back to players you know and trust. As we started to discuss different ideas and targets, Richie’s name came up in conversation with Jim and, once I did my own homework on Richie, I understood exactly what Jim was talking about, so we set out to try and do the deal.

“We thank everyone at Port Vale and thank Richie for listening to our proposal, we’re just delighted that he’s decided to come and join us. He’s more than just a goal scorer, he can score special goals and different types of goals, as his record at both this level and the level above demonstrates. We do need goals, but we need players to complement the team we’ve got at the moment, so Richie ticks all the boxes for us and I’m really confident over the next two years he’ll be a big part of what we’re going to do here.”



Richie has been handed squad number 23 and will be eligible to make his debut for the Hatters at Maidenhead United this weekend.

Welcome to Edgeley Park, Richie!

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