Following his recovery, he played 44 games of the 1996–97 season, one of the most successful of the club's history, as Vale posted an eighth-place finish, two places and four points below Crystal Palace, who went on to win promotion to the Premier League as winners of the play-offs. He made 42 appearances in the 1997–98 season, helping the "Valiants" to avoid the drop by finishing three places and just one point above relegated Manchester City. However his reputation was somewhat sullied in an FA Cup third-round game on 14 January 1998, as he blasted his penalty over the bar in the penalty shoot-out with Arsenal; it was the final kick of the 4–3 defeat (the game had finished 1–1 in normal time). Recovering from their lacklustre third round performance, Arsenal would later go on to win the competition.