Port Vale have said a fond farewell to hugely respected and popular groundsman Denis Dawson, who has died, aged 83, reports the Stoke Sentinel.

Denis was groundsman from 1966-1975 when he earned respect and admiration for keeping Vale playing against the odds on a notoriously challenging pitch.

The job was a labour of love for Denis as he laboured to get games on despite the, at best, limited drainage at Vale Park at the time.

He earned the admiration of current groundsman Steve Speed, who joined the club in 1979 and got to know Denis who was helping Vale out despite having left four years earlier.

Speed told the Stoke Sentinel, "He was always there if I had a problem and, if I was a bit down, he always had the right words to say. He was a great bloke.

"When Denis left, the club had just sold Brian Horton, the social club and the land where the Co-op was, so he thought it was a good time to leave. But he stayed on as a consultant and used to pop in every two weeks and have a chat."

Ray Williams, who joined the club in 1972, told the local paper, "I had never met a groundsman before when I joined the club and Denis was a Port Vale character. He took great pride in the pitch even though he had a very difficult job because it wasn't very good in those days.

"But the pitch was his domain and you set foot on it at your peril if it wasn't a matchday.

"He was the boss of that pitch and dictated even to the manager. On the flip side of that, you could talk to him, and have a laugh with him, he was a brilliant guy."